ARTWORK:
Carlo Maria Viganoni, Winning Athlete, 1813, oil on canvas, Gazzola Museum, Piacenza. Recently restored, this canvas is a typical example of the neoclassical ‘Canova’ academy, with the heroic man. The work, not immune to emphasis, came second in the competition of the Accademia di San Luca – promoted in Rome by Canova himself and having as its subject the triumphant athlete. A competition won by Francesco Hayez, whose canvas is still preserved in the Academy. Also, for Viganoni – a painter from Piacenza born on 28 January 1786 – the knowledge of anatomy is perfect, but, unlike the work of his more quoted colleague, it lacks an authentic vitality. The canvas was sent as a gift to the Gazzola Institute by Viganoni himself in 1813-1814, as soon as the competition was over. After his first studies in drawing and painting at the Gazzola Institute under Giuseppe Gherardi, at the age of 20, in 1806, Viganoni was sent to Rome to study in the atelier of the celebrated painter Gaspare Landi. His career led him to sojourn in various Italian cities, only to return definitively to Piacenza in 1832, taking up the post of professor at the Gazzola Institute.
