Un’assenza illustre. L’Assunta di Tiziano, i Frari e l’Accademia (1816-1917/1919)

Among the positive outcomes of the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797 was the attention paid by succeeding governments to the care and conservation of works of art, especially those that remained in Venice after others were requisitioned and moved to other museums. The renovation of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia in 1807, through the initiative of its second president Leopoldo Cicognara, led to the establishment of an academic museum in which the most important works of art still existing in Venice, and those in need of restoration, could be assembled under one roof. Thus, at the end of 1816, the Assunta left the Frari for the Accademia. There it was displayed with other important paintings until 1917, when it was transported with the greatest possible care first to Cremona and then to Pisa, before being returned to its original place in the Frari in 1920.