Ca' Rezzonico is one of the most famous palaces in Venice, located in the Dorsoduro district and overlooking the Grand Canal between Palazzo Contarini Michiel and Palazzo Bernardo Nani, not far from Ca' Foscari.
It was designed by Baldassarre Longhena starting in 1649,
commissioned by the noble Bon family. The construction site was only
opened in 1667 with the demolition of the pre-existing buildings. Due to
the financial difficulties of the clients and the death of Longhena in
1682, the construction was abandoned. Only the noble façade towards the
Grand Canal remained and a first floor covered with wooden beams.
In the meantime a family originally from the village of Rezzonico,
on Lake Como, the Della Torre-Rezzonicos, had settled in Venice and had
obtained admission to the patriciate in 1687. It was a Rezzonico,
Giambattista, who in 1751 bought the building. He entrusted the
completion of the work to Giorgio Massari, who had completed the second
floor in 1752 and managed to close the construction site in 1758,
carrying out some completion and embellishment works on the back of the
building in 1756: the magnificent grand staircase was built , the water
stairway, the monumental atrium, the imposing ballroom (built by
eliminating the attic) and the decoration of the facade on the Grand
Canal was completed.
Overall Massari did not intervene on the
original project, which was therefore not altered, contrary to what
Antonio Gaspari did on Ca' Pesaro, another Longhenian project which
remained unfinished after the designer's death. The only substantial
change made by the new architect concerned the ballroom, the size of
which was enlarged. The paintings are by Giambattista Crosato, Pietro
Visconti, Giambattista Tiepolo, the young Jacopo Guarana and Gaspare
Diziani.
The palace was finished just two years before the
election as pope of Carlo Rezzonico, brother of Giambattista, with the
name of Clement XIII. The family died out in 1810. From the autumn of
1847 to 1848, it was the residence of Carlo Maria Isidoro of
Bourbon-Spain, protected by the Austrian government.
Ca'
Rezzonico then underwent various transfers, during which it was stripped
of its furnishings. In 1888 it was bought for 250,000 lire by Robert
Barrett Browning, son of the English writers Robert Browning and
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who restored it thanks to the financial
support of his wife, the American Fannie Coddington. His father Robert,
who had financed the purchase, died there, in the mezzanine apartment,
on December 12, 1889.
In 1906 Robert Barrett Browning, ignoring
an offer made to him by the Emperor William II of Germany, sold the
palace to the count and deputy Lionello Hierschel de Minerbi, who in
1935 gave it to the Municipality of Venice.
Since 1936 it has
become the seat of the Museo del Settecento Veneziano which, in addition
to reconstructions of rooms with furniture and furnishings of the time,
houses important pictorial works by Canaletto, Francesco Guardi, Pietro
Longhi, Tintoretto, as well as by the Tiepolos and numerous terracotta
sketches by Giovanni Maria Morlaiter. In the first decade of the 21st
century, the Egidio Martini Art Gallery and the Mestrovich Collection
were located inside the Ca' Rezzonico.
Subjected to the criticisms of numerous Venetian art lovers, first of
all John Ruskin, the façade is distinguished by its size and
monumentality. It is divided into three important horizontal bands: the
ground floor, enriched by ashlar decorations and a three-hole water
portal with architrave and two main floors, characterized by columns and
round-headed windows with keystone heads. Each floor ends with coupled
columns. The mezzanine attic is characterized by oval single-light
windows, hidden in the articulated design of the facade.
The plan
of the building is extremely complex: it has a large ballroom, which
occupies two floors in height, connected to the ground floor by a
majestic monumental staircase. Apart from this extraordinary exception,
the Palazzo is organized according to a traditional plan: it has a large
portego in the center which overlooks both the Grand Canal and the
central courtyard; on both sides there are smaller rooms.
Museum
of the eighteenth century Venice
The building was opened to the
public after a restoration: it was April 25, 1936. The curators of the
exhibition were Nino Barbantini and Giulio Lorenzetti, who wanted to
arrange the works in a natural way, almost as if they were part of the
furnishings. The eighteenth-century works owned by the Civic Museums of
Venice were concentrated there. To these were added works from
civic-owned buildings and works purchased for the occasion on the
antiques market.