Francesco Simonini (Parma 1686-1766) has in recent years enjoyed a renewed fortune critique and broadening interest from collectors.
He is certainly one of the most interesting genre artists active in 18th-century Venice, where he worked between 1731 and 1748.
A specialist in painting battle scenes, he worked in the lagoon for prestigious patrons, such as marshall von der Schulenburg, the Gradenigo and Pisani families on the Santo Stefano side. He also executed some major decorative cycles for the Cappello and Balbi residences, today lost, unfortunately, but documented thanks to the large corpus of drawings preserved in the Cabinet of drawings and prints of Museo Correr.

These sheets, restored for the occasion of this exhibition, will be displayed for the first time at Ca’ Rezzonico.
On the same occasion, a group of paintings showing Battles painted by Simonini and other artists contemporary to him will also be put on show.

The exhibition at Ca’ Rezzonico is curated by Aberto Craievich and Filippo Pedrocco