Ca' Rezzonico

Ca' Rezzonico is a palazzo and public art museum located on the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro sestiere of Venice, Italy. It serves as the Museo del Settecento Veneziano, a museum dedicated to 18th-century Venice. The institution is particularly notable as an example of 18th-century Venetian baroque and rococo architecture and interior decoration. Its collection displays paintings by the leading Venetian painters of the period, including Francesco Guardi and Giambattista Tiepolo. It is one of the 11 venues managed by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia.

The site was originally occupied by two houses belonging to the patrician Bon family. In 1649, Filippo Bon commissioned Baldassarre Longhena to transform the decaying structures into a single large palazzo. By 1661, Longhena had combined the houses and begun the canal facade, but construction halted after Longhena died in 1682 and Bon went bankrupt. Filippo Bon died in 1712, leaving the unfinished building to his descendants, who lacked the funds to complete it. In 1750, the banker and fabric merchant Giambattista Rezzonico purchased the unfinished palazzo for 60,000 gold ducats. His family had bought their Venetian nobility title in 1648 during the War of Candia, when state coffers were depleted. Rezzonico hired architect Giorgio Massari, who largely followed Longhena's original plan but modified the facade to suit lighter rococo tastes, finishing it between 1750 and 1752. The interior was nearly complete by 1756. The height of the family's power came in 1758 when Carlo Rezzonico was elected Pope Clement XIII, and Ludovico Rezzonico married Faustina Savorgnan, uniting two of Venice's richest families. Tiepolo was commissioned to paint the ceilings of two salons for the occasion. The last member of the Venetian Rezzonico line died in 1810. The palace subsequently passed through several owners, including Carlo Pindemonte, who sold the furnishings and art collections in 1832, leaving only the frescoes in situ. In 1837, Count Ladislao Zelinsky bought the empty building and rented it to tenants, including the Duke of Modena, Franz of Austria-Este. Around 1850, an art dealer used the second floor as a gallery. In 1885, the son of poet Robert Browning acquired the palazzo as a residence for his father, who died there in 1889.

As the Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca' Rezzonico is dedicated to the art and culture of 18th-century Venice. The museum's strengths lie in its comprehensive display of Venetian baroque and rococo interior decoration and its holdings of paintings by leading Venetian painters of the period. The collection features works by Francesco Guardi and Giambattista Tiepolo, alongside frescoes and trompe-l'oeil works by artists such as Giovanni Battista Crosato, Girolamo Mengozzi Colonna, Gaspare Diziani, and Jacopo Guarana. The integrated decorative schemes remain central to the museum's character, preserving the immersive aesthetic of a Venetian patrician residence.

The most significant works in the collection are the original 18th-century frescoes integrated into the palace architecture. Giambattista Tiepolo painted the ceiling fresco 'La Noblesse, la Vertu et le Mérite se dirigeant vers le temple de la Gloire' (measuring 600 by 100 cm) in the nuptial chamber to celebrate the 1758 marriage of Ludovico Rezzonico and Faustina Savorgnan. Tiepolo depicted the couple in a trompe-l'oeil chariot of Apollo, a romantic theme that continues into the neighboring chamber. The ballroom ceiling features Giovanni Battista Crosato's fresco of Apollo guiding his chariot between Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The walls of the ballroom are decorated with architectural trompe-l'oeil paintings by Pietro Visconti, and the monumental stairway features marble balustrades adorned with allegorical sculptures by Giusto Le Court, including figures of Envy and Winter.

Ca' Rezzonico stands on the right bank of the Grand Canal at the point where it is joined by the Rio di San Barnaba. The building is a three-story marble structure. The rusticated ground floor features a central portico of three recessed bays flanked symmetrically by double windows. The piano nobile above has seven bays of arched windows separated by pilasters, a design nearly repeated on the second floor, which is surmounted by a mezzanine of low oval windows added by Massari for additional light. The slight projection of two levels of balconies accentuates the baroque decor. Breaking with Venetian custom, Massari placed the major ceremonial ballroom at the rear of the building rather than overlooking the canal, doubling its ceiling height to create a more dramatic space. He laid out a ceremonial route from the canal dock to a courtyard fountain surmounted by the Rezzonico coat of arms, leading through a triumphal hallway to a monumental stairway. At the center of the rectangular plan is a small courtyard decorated with sculptures and a fountain, dominated by the colonnaded balcony of the piano nobile.

Ca' Rezzonico is located in the Dorsoduro sestiere of Venice, Italy, overlooking the Grand Canal. It operates as a public museum under the management of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. The institution's official website is carezzonico.visitmuve.it. The palazzo is accessible by canal, featuring a dock and gateway on the Grand Canal that corresponds to the ceremonial entrance designed by Massari.