We began at Ca’Pesaro, a Baroque Palace completed in 1710, now housing the museum of modern art. It was originally built for the Pesaro family (hence the name) and was bequeathed to the city in the 19th century for exhibiting the works of unestablished Venetian artists. It became the Gallery of Modern Art in 1897.
It’s difficult to pick out individual works of art. But most people will recognise this one by Rodin
It’s not a statue though, it’s in polished plaster.
There’s also a plaster of Rodin’s Burghers of Calais just close to it. There’s quite a bit of sculpture in the gallery in fact, mostly by Italians whose names are not familiar to me.
I really liked this beautiful portrait, Lady in Pink
It’s by John Lavery, one of the ‘Glasgow Boys’, and he is apparently particularly appreciated in Italy, where he is seen as a refined commentator of British society.
The Klimt below is one that appears on museum posters, the only Klimt in this gallery
It’s in a room with other similar paintings by Italian artists, so he appears to have been very influential.
I also picked out this Boudin, View of Antwerp.
The gallery has a lot of painting and sculpture, quite a collection of glass and even some Art Nouveau furniture, designed by Carlo Bugatti, father of the car manufacturer.
There are three floors, the one I have covered in some detail, one housing a collection of Chinese and Japanese artefacts collected by the Count of Bardi on this travels during the 19th century, and one devoted to Arshile Gorky, an Armenian-American painter who had a huge influence on Abstract Expressionism. He spent most his life as a national of the United States and is apparently regarded as one of the most powerful American painters of the 20th century, along with the likes of Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. As I am a complete Philistine as far as Abstract Expressionism is concerned, and my back was troubling me, I gave that a miss and went to the café for lunch.
One of the best aspects of the café was sitting on a verandah looking over the Grand Canal and watching the world go by. There’s a variety of traffic on the Grand Canal, sometimes quite a traffic jam. There are 3 different vaporetti routes, and they vie for space with water taxis, private speedboats both large and small, working boats carrying goods, hotel boats carrying passengers followed by others piled high with the guests’ suitcases, gondolas, police boats, and today, a group of six canoes and another of 3 dragon boats! Now that I mention gondolas, I’ve just recalled that, as we went under Rialto Bridge today I looked out of the vaporetto window and saw a young couple in a gondola. As I looked, the young man went down on one knee and produced a ring box. The girl clapped her hands to my mouth, obviously saying ‘Oh my goodness’ or its equivalent in some language. Clearly, romance is not dead!
After lunch, we set off for Ca’Rezzonica, today a museum reflecting 18th century Venice. The building was begun in 1667, but lack of funds meant it wasn’t finished. It was bought by the Rezzonico family who completed and decorated it in 1712. In 1888 it was bought by Robert Browning, who didn’t enjoy it for long poor man, as he died of bronchitis in 1889.
You begin in the ballroom, full of trompe l’oeil frescos, elaborately carved and gilded wooden chandeliers and carved furniture.
Look carefully at the black statue on the right of the picture. That, and the two chairs next to it are the only things that aren’t painted fresco. The pillars behind the statue, the door surround, the circular pillar and the grey statue are all paint on a flat wall. I don’t know what that red and black thing in the middle of the wall is, but suspect it’s something connected with the Biennale. It certainly isn’t part of the palace decorations.
Adjoining rooms have ceilings with frescos by Giambattista Tiepolo. Below is one of them.
It’s allegorical, and according to the notes, the central figure represents Nobility.
Because this is a Baroque Palace, there is Baroque furniture. Most of it seems hideous to me. This is one of the ugliest chairs I have ever seen in my life.
It’s actually a throne used by Pope Pius VI in 1782 when he stayed as a guest, but it was made about 70 or 80 years earlier. It’s what my mother would probably have described as a real dust trap, but, as our friend commented, why worry about dust when you have an army of servants to take care of that sort of thing.
There is a Canaletto painting in a nearby room, which I liked very much
It’s called View of the Rio dei Mendicanti.
It’s called View of the Rio dei Mendicanti.
By contrast with the beggars, another room is set up as a typical opulent bedroom.
That’s just the bed. The door on the left leads into the dressing room, where there are some beautiful cupboards for clothes, and a small sitting room. And to the right of the bed, which you can’t see in my photo, is a cupboard with a large collection of silver which was the lady’s toilet set.
Further up there is a huge picture gallery with a collection of largely Venetian paintings, and Giandomenico Tiepolo’s series of frescos painted for his family villa. Rivalling the paintings were views over Venice from the windows.
I believe that further up still is a reconstructed 18th century apothecary’s shop, but my back was so troublesome that I had to give up. I retired to the café to drink coffee, and shortly after that, we were all told to leave as it was closing time. So Paul and I made our way back home, via two different boats. As the supermarkets are all shut on Sunday, we had dinner in a local restaurant.
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