Enfilade

Francesco Guardi, View of San Giorgio Maggiore
(Venice: Fondazione Giorgio Cini)

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From the Fondazione Giorgio Cini:

Casanova and Venice

Palazzo Cini, Venice, 27 September 2025 — 2 March 2026

Casanova and Europe: An Opera in Multiple Acts

San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, 17 October 2025 – 2 March 2026

On the 300th anniversary of the birth of Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798), the Fondazione Giorgio Cini is dedicating a major exhibition and cultural project to the celebrated Venetian. The first chapter of the double exhibition opens at Palazzo Cini in San Vio on September 27. Curated by the Institute of Art History, with the participation of the Institute for Theater and Opera, the exhibition traces the multifaceted figure of Casanova—scholar, memoirist, philosopher, alchemist, traveler, and diplomat—throughout a restless century that ended with the fall of the Serenissima. Through nearly one hundred works including paintings, engravings, books, objets d’art, and documents from the Foundation’s collections and prestigious Italian and European institutions, the exhibition recounts the refined, cultured, and contradictory world of the Venetian 18th century—Casanova’s century.

The exhibition is part of a wider cultural program involving all the Fondazione Giorgio Cini institutions, with conferences, concerts, and seminars dedicated to the link between Casanova, Venice, and Europe. The aim is to present a complex and multidisciplinary portrait of one of the most iconic figures in the history of Venice, who was a central figure during the final century of the Serenissima’s existence. The Foundation celebrates the European spirit embodied by Casanova.

“The project dedicated to Casanova is an opportunity to highlight the deep connection between the Fondazione Giorgio Cini and the city, its history, and its cultural context, drawing inspiration,” explains President Gianfelice Rocca, “from the great personalities and significant themes that have shaped history. It is an opportunity to emphasise the expertise, research, and collaboration between the Foundation’s Institutes and Centres in an international context. The Foundation’s vocation is to be an active participant, through this and other events, in the global stage of dialogue based on cultural diplomacy as a useful and necessary tool to respond to an era like ours, in which cultures and civilisations risk becoming enemies, unable to listen to, understand, and collaborate with each other.”

The Scientific Director, Daniele Franco, emphasises, “Fondazione Giorgio Cini is working to propose a reading of Casanova that goes beyond the usual imagery, the ‘myth’ that has become entrenched in traditional interpretations surrounding him. The primary aim is to highlight a complex character, a man who, from Venice, travels throughout Europe, in a historical period of rapid cultural and political change, where a vision of European society begins to emerge, one that is permeated by uncertainties, tensions, and an increasingly open and complex cultural debate. In Casanova’s writings, we can find many of the contradictions and forces for change that Europe is grappling with today.”

• Casanova e Venezia, at Palazzo Cini (27 September 2025 – 2 March 2026) with a focus on Venice, the birthplace and the first stage of Casanova’s life.
• Casanova e l’Europa: Opera in più atti, on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore (17 October 2025 – 2 March 2026), a look at Europe and the network of travels, relationships, and adventures that made Casanova an ante litteram European figure. The exhibition is produced in collaboration for the staging with the Fondazione Teatro La Fenice.

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Note (added 2 November 2025) — The press release for Casanova e l’Europa: Opera in più atti is available here.