Davide Rivalta. Leoni in campo / Lions on the Field

Large sculptures by the artist Davide Rivalta now occupy the campo and campiello in front of Palazzo Querini Stampalia—monumental bronze lions that take over the urban space and engage directly with passers-by, inviting them to come closer and step inside to discover and experience the Foundation.

The word lions immediately evokes Venice and its Lion of Saint Mark, but the plurality of the figures and their sculptural context expand this meaning. Their power lies in the ambivalence of the word campo, which shifts between a physical location and a site of action.

In Venice, the term campo refers to what elsewhere might be called a piazza. It is an open, communal space where daily life unfolds: meetings, movement, moments of pause. It is not just a physical place, but also a symbolic, almost theatrical one. In this sense, the Leoni in campo are presences that inhabit, observe, and subtly transform the rhythm of living in this city.

The two lions and two lionesses, seated yet alert, appear as figures that wait, guard, and watch. Their seated position amplifies the sense of a presence that is either settling or perhaps about to resume its journey—its direction uncertain. A feeling of suspension lingers—of waiting, curiosity, and mystery. Their monumentality does not provoke anxiety; on the contrary, it casts them as reassuring presences, silent sentinels who inhabit the space of the campo with the calm of those who watch over, not those who threaten.

In this work, Davide Rivalta returns to one of the most cherished animals in his bestiary to reveal once again the lion and the lioness in their dual essence: majestic and silent, symbols of freedom, power, and control. With Leoni in campo, the artist weaves myth and reality together, placing these imposing creatures within an urban space held in suspension. Their stillness is not passivity, but a form of resistance. Through his sculptural language, Rivalta invites us to engage not only with their mythological and symbolic dimensions, but also with their natural presence—making the lions not just witnesses, but protagonists in a dialogue that involves the very heart of the city and its history.

This is a story of the relationship between the urban space and the wild—still not fully tamed or shaped by humans—and of the connection between living beings.