Vedova Tintoretto. In dialogo

Torino, Palazzo Madama

Tickets and opening hours

From 19 September 2025 to 12 January 2026, Palazzo Madama – Museo Civico d’Arte Antica of Turin and the Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova of Venice will be hosting the exhibition Vedova Tintoretto. In Dialogue, curated by Gabriella Belli e Giovanni Carlo Federico Villa.

This exceptional event has been planned to bring together the art of two great Venetian painters, each of whom was one of the greatest artists of his time: Jacopo Robusti, known as Tintoretto (Venice, 1518-1594), and Emilio Vedova (Venice, 1919-2006). Their work will be read in parallel, so as to address the evolution of Vedova’s work in comparison with that of his chosen master, investigating similarities and consonant (or dissonant) themes underlying their individual expressive choices.

Tintoretto was fundamental for Vedova’s artistic training, and the exhibition at Palazzo Madama will underline the impetus and strength of the complex relationship between the two artists by juxtaposing masterpieces by both the Renaissance master and the exponent of Arte Informale.

The project for the exhibition stems from the exceptional opportunity to display – in Turin – one of the last and most paradigmatic works of Tintoretto’s human and artistic development: the Self-Portrait of 1588, on loan from the Musée du Louvre. A canvas that was more than just an iconographic model, but represented – as can be seen from the interpretations of Edouard Manet, who replicated it and considered it the most beautiful painting in the world, and from the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre – a sort of poetic and conceptual identification for many artists.

Gabriella Belli states: "For the first time, with extreme academic rigour this exhibition outlines the processes that shaped the young Vedova's thinking regarding Tintoretto's pictorial works. The orderly yet visionary journey projects the public into the full maturity of the Venetian painter, when he was still strongly influenced by Tintoretto's incandescent and prescient painting. The intensity can also be seen in Vedova's monumental work ...in continuum, comprising 100 or more canvases, a unique work, almost a tribute in fruitful competition with the creative effort of the great Venetian canvases of his prophet Tintoretto."

Giovanni Carlo Federico Villa continues: "This formidable dialogue on the making of art was strongly desired by Palazzo Madama to evoke the role of the Civic Museums of Turin as they were brilliantly conceived and sought after by Vittorio Viale, one of the most significant European directors of the twentieth century. Viale brought the Civic Museum to Palazzo Madama, created the Civic Gallery of Modern Art and finally, together with Luigi Carluccio, organised epoch-making exhibitions. This exhibition is dedicated to the mastery of Viale (1891-1977), in a precise reflection on the ancient capable of generating the contemporary."

Emilio Vedova wrote about his great teacher: “Tintoretto was someone I identified with. That space was a place where things happened. That direction with its syncopated and bloody rhythms, magmatic with energy from deep-seated passions and emotional intensity (…)”.

For Vedova, Tintoretto represented the everyday routine of churches, schools and palaces in Venice, where he sought and found his master, the only one who revealed to him the secret of transforming technique from a mere expressive tool for beautiful forms into a sharp blade capable of engraving itself in history. Vedova drew inspiration from him for themes and content, learning basic lessons on how to dominate the space of the canvas, translate the light of his compositions into colour, and model forms with quick, unhesitating gestures, which sprang from his new style: by 1948, he had already abandoned all figurative temptation in favour of abstraction. Arriving at the unforgettable sequence of the ...in continuum, compenetrazioni/traslati ’87/’88, he proved once again how much the encounter of a lifetime made also his disciple great, offering him the necessary impetus to go beyond.

The Vedova Tintoretto. In dialogue exhibition, hosted in the Senate Hall, the Aula del Senato del Regno d’Italia, presents around fifty paintings by Emilio Vedova and by Tintoretto, including masterpieces such as the sensational Camerlenghi altarpieces, on extraordinary loan from the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, and some of the works from the famous Metamorphoses cycle now preserved in the Gallerie Estensi in Modena. The intense dialogue between the two artists develops from Vedova’s early drawings from 1936, through the canvases of the 1940s and 1950s dedicated to reflections on paintings by Tintoretto. This in works such as Moltiplicazione dei pani e dei pesci (da Tintoretto) (The Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes (after Tintoretto)) (1942), La crocifissione (da Tintoretto) (The Crucifixion (after Tintoretto)) (1947), (study after Tintoretto’s Sogno di San Marco (Dream of St. Mark) (1956), and those of the 1980s.

Completing the dialogue and the exhibition is Vedova with his monumental installation …in continuum, compenetrazione/traslati ’87/’88: more than a hundred large canvases, assembled together in a development that challenges the verticality of the Senate Hall, testimony to Vedova’s evolution as, with visionary power, he continued his confrontation with his virtual master.

The exhibition has been made possible thanks to the support of Valore Cultura, the official sponsor of the exhibition as part of Generali's multi-year programme to promote art and culture.