Yesterday, 11 October, the “Tsaritsyno” Museum-Reserve, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of Moscow and the Department of Art History of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University, organised a conference entitled “Venice in Russia: research experiences on Venetian art and cultural heritage”. The initiative was aimed at researchers, curators of museum collections, young scholars, and PhD students who study the art and culture of Venice in the 15th-18th centuries.
For the occasion, the Slavist and musicologist Anna Giust, who teaches Russian Language and Literature at the University of Verona, gave a talk (in Russian) entitled “Giovanni Battista Perucchini, mediator of art and artists between Russia and Italy”. This contribution on Giovanni Battista Perucchini (1784-1870), the central figure of a network that was part of the musical theatre production system, highlighted a number of personal relationships he established with members of the Russian aristocracy that contributed to the mobility of professionalism and cultural assets associated with the world of the arts.
Some of the most important topics discussed at the conference were: issues relating to the restoration and attribution of Venetian works of art in Italian and national collections; Venetian art in Russian collections; Venetian art in Russian historiography; and “Venetians in Russia”: stories of Italians who visited Russia in the 15th and 18th centuries and left their mark on Russian culture.
