From December 12, 2025 to March 8, 2026, the Eremitani Museum in Padua is exhibiting the Centanini Collection, belonging to the artistic heritage of the Cassa di Risparmio Foundation of Padua and Rovigo, in an exhibition curated by Alessia Vedova, with the scientific collaboration of Elisabetta Vanzelli. The exhibition has been extended until April 6.

For the first time in Padua, it will be possible to admire the testimonies of 5 centuries of great art, in 70 works including several authentic masterpieces.
The Collection was donated to the Foundation by lawyer Pietro Centanini in 2015. It brings together what had been collected over time by the historic family of Venetian origins who later settled in Stanghella, and the acquisitions that the lawyer himself made since he was still a law student in Padua.

In contrast to the family collection, which brought together paintings executed between the seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries, his taste turned towards modern art. The first works purchased were by contemporary Venetian artists respectful of tradition, such as Bergamini, Dinon, Farina, Barbisan, or cautiously innovative, like Breddo. But the taste matured within the family heritage also led him to appreciate and seek out ancient paintings from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such as the Madonna attributed to Guercino, the landscape in the manner of Salvator Rosa, and the small painting by Maggiotto.

From the 1980s, the acquisitions focused very coherently on Italian nineteenth-century art, with peaks of true excellence, such as the paintings by Palizzi, De Nittis, Milesi, Lega, Signorini, Zandomeneghi. At the same time, works by some great artists of the twentieth century also became part of the collection, such as Guidi, Guttuso, Utrillo, Soffici, Chagall, Carrà, De Chirico, De Pisis, and Sironi.

From these contributions, a collection emerges that denotes a deep culture combined with the taste of the moment. A collection that is exemplary in many ways, particularly regarding the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, where the taste of Centanini and his wife is highlighted, both passionate art lovers, but also their choice to rely on the suggestions of the most qualified experts and art dealers active in Italy during those years to give strength and quality to their art collection. Thus creating a collection of the highest level not only for the names gradually added to it but above all for the remarkable quality of the acquired works.

Info:

The exhibition is open from December 12, 2025 to March 8, 2026

from Monday to Sunday, 9 am - 7 pm

closed on December 25-26, 2025 and January 1, 2026

entrance with the ticket of the Civic Museums of Padua (until January 6, 2026 free entrance for residents of Padua and province and students and Erasmus of the University of Padua)

Civic Museums of Padua: www.padovamusei.it

Cariparo Foundation: www.fondazionecariparo.it/eventi-culturali