Renoir's Italian Journey: Exhibition at Palazzo Roverella Explores His Classical Turn

Palazzo Roverella in Rovigo hosts 'Renoir: l'alba di un nuovo classicismo', an exhibition examining Pierre-Auguste Renoir's relationship with Italy and its Renaissance masters. The show contextualizes Renoir's shift from Impressionism toward a classicizing style after his 1881-1882 Italian sojourn, during which he studied works by Carpaccio, Raphael, Titian, Rubens, and Tiepolo in Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, and Palermo. It juxtaposes Renoir's mature works with those of his inspirations and contemporaries, including the 'Italiens de Paris' group—Giovanni Boldini, Federico Zandomeneghi, and Giuseppe De Nittis—who were influenced by his early Impressionist phase. The exhibition also features portraits of Renoir's family, including a sanguine drawing of his wife holding infant Jean Renoir, later a renowned film director; clips from Jean's 1936 film 'Une partie de campagne' show his recreation of his father's pictorial atmospheres. The show argues that Renoir's turn to the antique foreshadowed the 'return to order' in early 20th-century Italian art, with echoes in works by Arturo Tosi, Enrico Paulucci, and Carlo Carrà.