On our last day in Venice, we walk to the Ca’ Rezzonica, a beautiful Palazzo on the Grand Canal in the Dorsodura District. As usual, we wandered the streets until we found it down an unmarked alley. Perhaps one of the lesser-known museums in the city, it’s also one of the most intriguing. It contains not only paintings but also frescoes, furniture, statuary, and many other artifacts from opulent 18th-century Venice. It also gives us access to some great views of the Grand Canal and the neighborhood. We thought this would be a quick tour, but for us history majors, it turned out to be one of our more interesting stops.
This palace has a fascinating history of its own, notwithstanding its incredible contents. Designed by Baldassare Longhena in the 17th century for the aristocratic Bon family, this palace wasn’t completed until nearly 100 years later by Giorgio Massari. Longhena's death and Bon Family financial problems halted the work leaving the palace incomplete. The Rezzonico family had moved to Venice from Lombardy in the late 16th century and purchased a title. Giambattista Rezzonico, merchant and banker, bought the palace in 1751 and appointed Massari to complete it.
While the Grand Canal facade is Longhena's, Massari was responsible for the ceremonial staircase and the grandiose ballroom. The most important painters in Venice were called upon to decorate it: Crosato and Visconti, the frescoes in the ballroom; and Tiepolo, who painted two ceilings along with Guarana and Diziani. It was indeed an age of artistic excess.
By 1810, the family had died out, and the place was sold. Stripped of its furnishings, the palace had various owners until it was bought by English painter, Robert Barrett Browning, for his father Robert Browning, who died there in 1889. It was subsequently taken over by Baron Hirschel de Minerby, who eventually sold it to the Venice Town Council in 1935.
It now houses the "Museum of Venice in the 1700s", and it is a fascinating place. It retains the feel of an old Venetian palazzo and the frivolous lifestyle of 18th century Venice. For instance, the Throne Room, which was originally decorated for the wedding of Ludovico Rezzonico to Faustina Savorgnan, is fully furnished with articles from the patrician Barbarigo family. The room is named for an ornate gilt chair by Corradini. Additionally, there is a Chinese-style salon from the Calbo-Crotta family palazzo. Many of the rooms contain furnishings salvaged from decaying Venetian palazzos. There is also an extensive collection of Venetian glass.
The most impressive room in the building, though, is the ballroom; followed by the frescoes throughout the building, the ornate staircases and the view from the second-floor balconies. Paintings by Guardi, Longhi, Giambattista and Canaletto, and others I knew little of until today are interesting but pale next to the art we had seen in the Gallerie dell’Accademia, yesterday.
Admission around €11. Closed Tuesdays. Picture-taking not allowed inside the palazzo.