Beauty and the Ideal

Banca Ifis’ Canova Collection and the Traveling Pinacoteca.

From May 16, 2025, Room 1 of the Pinacoteca di Brera will be transformed to host “Beauty and the Ideal,” an unmissable exhibition dedicated to Antonio Canova. Twelve plaster busts restored by Banca Ifis, including the marble Vestal and enameled miniatures from the Sommariva collection, offer a unique journey into Neoclassicism, the founding heart of the Milanese museum.

The Pinacoteca di Brera opens to the public, from May 16, 2025, “Beauty and the Ideal,” a new exhibition entirely dedicated to Antonio Canova. Protagonists are 12 plaster busts restored and lent by Banca Ifis, presented for the first time in Milan in the renovated Room 1.

Alongside these masterpieces, the Vestal, a precious marble bust by the neoclassical master, returns to Brera after more than a century, along with a selection of enameled miniatures from the collection of Giovanni Battista Sommariva, a key figure in Napoleonic art.

The rearrangement enhances the sculpture as an integral part of the museum itinerary and celebrates the link between Brera and Neoclassicism.

The exhibition is curated by Chiara Rostagno and Valentina Ferrari, and is accompanied by a catalog published by Contemplazioni.

The initiative strengthens the collaboration between Pinacoteca and Banca Ifis, already active in the Ifis Art cultural project, which promotes the dissemination of art as an aesthetic and ethical value.