Museo Canova - Atelier

Possagno is the village where the great Neoclassical sculptor, Antonio Canova, was born. The most important evidence of his art (sculptures, reliefs, sketches, paintings...) is now located in his Birthplace and in the near Gypsotheca, where, in 1829, his brother Giovanni Battista Sartori decided to reunite all the plaster cast models that were found in the Roman workshop of the artist after his death.
The Museum of Possagno, one of the first Museums of the Veneto region, offers a complete overview on the life and work of Antonio Canova. In fact, the Museum not only comprises the plaster cast models (that is, the original statues of which many marble copies, the replicas, are disseminated around the world), but also oil and tempera paintings, drawings, memories, clothes, tools, books...
All these Canovian works are kept inside beautiful buildings that create the perfect atmosphere to admire them. These architectural jewels are: the 18th-century House, built by the expert stonemasons and stonecutters of the area, the 19th-century Gypsotheca by Francesco Lazzari, the 20th-century structure added by Carlo Scarpa and Luciano Gemin, the great Temple a few meters away from Canova’s birthplace, designed by the artist to serve as the local church.
The Museo Antonio Canova in Possagno is not a mere collection of statues, but an entire “Canovian complex” that comprises museums, archives, research centers.