Palazzo Minotto-Barbarigo is a civil building located in Venice, in the San Marco district. It overlooks the left side of the Grand Canal next to Palazzo Corner.
Following the marriage of Gregorio Barbarigo with the brilliant and
cultured Caterina Sagredo, in 1739, the most illustrious artists of the
moment were called, including the great master Giambattista Tiepolo,
Francesco Fontebasso, Gerolamo Mengozzi-Colonna and Carpoforo Mazzetti
to embellish the palace, both the Byzantine part, ex Minotto, and the
seventeenth-century one, which have been entirely united for some time
now.
In 1741 Mengozzi-Colonna from Ferrara, a famous
quadraturist, was paid for having painted the domestic chapel located in
a recess in the wall and closed by two wooden doors. In 1742 Mengozzi
Colonna also intervenes in the portego, the central hall, where he
supplies the designs for the beautiful Venetian terraces.
In 1741
the illustrious Venetian painter Gianbattista Tiepolo created the
stupendous monochromes and two of the overdoors that frame the large
oil-painted canvas, Virtue and Nobility Conquer Ignorance, now kept in
Ca' Rezzonico and here replaced by a splendid twentieth-century copy.
The Barbarigo family died out in 1804 with the death of the brilliant
and parlor Contarina Barbarigo and the palace was inherited by the
family of Marcantonio Michiel. Currently the noble floor with all its
splendid Baroque furnishings is owned by the Franchin family and the
prestigious headquarters of Musica a Palazzo: since 2005 this cultural
association has rented the noble floor, where it stages opera
performances inspired by the principles of the nineteenth-century
"Musical Lounge" .
The building consists of two buildings joined together in the 17th
century: the older part, home to Musica a Palazzo, was originally
Palazzo Minotto, a 15th-century Gothic building with Byzantine friezes
from the 12th century, while the more modern part is Palazzo Barbarigo,
a 17th-century construction.
Inside, the Louis XIV doors veneered
in walnut and the bronze vine-leaf handles are very beautiful.
All the pictorial decoration symbolizes the cultural interests of the
recently married couple of "Gregorietto" and Caterina Sagredo. Four
monochromes concern the sciences: History, Astronomy, Geography, and
Astrology. The other four, with mixtilinear frames, represent the Arts:
Painting, Sculpture, Music, and Poetry. On the overdoors Tiepolo had
frescoed Merit and Abundance. This cycle denotes the influence of
neoclassical fashion which, in those years, was establishing itself in
the city through ornamental motifs, antiquated sculptural pieces,
sarcophagi, amphorae and vases combined with the "Olympic grace" of the
characters depicted. This painting manifests the greatness of
Gianbattista's autographed works. The living room is defined as the room
of "Wisdom", precisely because it enhances the client's vision: the
entire cycle of monochromes is the celebration of the arts and sciences
that grant well-being and nobility. In the central canvas, painted by
Tiepolo between 1744-45, next to the two female figures, the Nobility
and the Virtue, appears a page holding the train of the Nobility, a
portrait of the painter's son, Giuseppe Maria. To his left we can see
the face of another character who could be the artist's self-portrait.
The figure of Ignorance drags with it, in its fall, a winged genius who
holds back the bat, emblem of Vice and both defeated by Virtue and
Nobility, a celebratory theme much appreciated by the patrons. The
painting stylistically reveals the maturity reached by Tiepolo with an
executive rendering of great quality, reminiscent of Veronese models.
Carpoforo Mazzetti, a pupil of Abbondio Stazio, both from Ticino,
created the stuccos in the rocaille style alcove, consisting of the
central room for the bed with the two side wings with the small doors
decorated with mirrors. The crest of the central compartment is
decorated with shield-bearing putti turned from behind and gazing
towards the alcove. Mazzetti also created the stuccoes in the dining
room which depict mythological scenes in pale pastel shades and very
colorful little animals which create highly realistic effects.