Museo Correr

The Museo Correr is the municipal museum of Venice, Italy, situated on the south side of Piazza San Marco in the upper floors of the Procuratorie Nuove. Founded in 1836 from the bequest of Teodoro Correr, it is one of eleven civic museums administered by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. The institution is distinguished by its dual focus on the art and the history of Venice, housing extensive collections of paintings, manuscripts, decorative arts, and historical documents that span the city's republican era through its nineteenth-century unification with Italy.

The museum originated with the 1830 bequest of Teodoro Correr (1750-1830), a member of an ancient Venetian family who dedicated his life and fortune to collecting art and documents reflecting Venetian history. At a time when the fall of the Republic in 1797 had forced many noble families to sell their collections, often to foreign buyers, Correr acquired a remarkable range of material with what sources describe as a sharp and original eye. He explicitly intended his collection to be made available to the public, and the museum opened in 1836. The original holdings were housed in the family's Grand Canal palace before moving to the Fondaco dei Turchi in 1887, and finally to the present location in Piazza San Marco in 1922. The collection grew through significant donations from Venetian families including the Molin, Zoppetti, Tironi, Sagredo, and Cicogna. In the 1990s the civic museums system was reorganized under a single municipal administration, and in 1996 the St. Mark's Square Museums ticket was introduced in agreement with the Italian Ministry of Culture, offering combined access to the Museo Correr, the Doge's Palace, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, and the Monumental Rooms of the Biblioteca Marciana. The Museo Correr became part of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia in March 2008.

The museum's holdings are organized into three principal collections. The first documents the history of Venice through city views, historical paintings, charters, vedute from the Canaletto school, ceremonial garments, coins and seals, maritime documents, and historical weapons. The second is the painting gallery, which includes significant works by Venetian and other Italian masters. The third is the Museo del Risorgimento e dell'Ottocento Veneziano, devoted to Venice's history from the end of the Republic to Italian unification. The library holdings are particularly notable, comprising approximately 12,000 manuscripts, 750 incunabula, and 100,000 monographs and periodicals. These are organized into several named funds: the Fondo Correr (1830, 1,533 items), the Fondo Malvezzi (1861, 160 manuscripts), the Fondo Cicogna (1866, 3,823 manuscripts acquired from Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna's collection of over 4,000 manuscripts and 40,000 printed works), the Fondo Gradenigo-Dolfin (1879, 1,230 manuscripts), the Fondo Donà dalle Rose (1881, approximately 500 manuscripts), the Fondo Wcovich Lazzari (1885, 5,000 manuscripts and prints), and the Fondo Morosini Grimani (1891, 2,418 books and 607 manuscripts). A Fondo Provenienze Diverse contains 3,430 items of varied provenance. The numismatic collection exceeds 50,000 pieces. Since 2010, an online catalog has been under development to improve access to these holdings.

The painting gallery occupies nineteen rooms and features works by major Venetian and other artists. Among the most celebrated is Vittore Carpaccio's Two Venetian Women, which in the nineteenth century was mistakenly identified as a depiction of courtesans. Other significant paintings include works by Paolo Veneziano, Lorenzo Veneziano, Cosme Tura, Antonello da Messina (notably a Pietà), Giovanni Bellini (including The Transfiguration, The Crucifixion, and Christ Dead Supported by Two Angels), and Gentile Bellini (Portrait of Doge Giovanni Mocenigo). The museum also preserves six large volumes of sketches for theater decorations by Francesco Bagnara for La Fenice. The Neoclassical rooms contain an important collection of sculptures by Antonio Canova, including Orpheus and Eurydice, Daedalus and Icarus, and Venus. The Napoleonic Wing also houses the Appartamenti di Sissi, nine rooms decorated in Empire style under the supervision of Eugène de Beauharnais, where Empress Elisabeth of Austria stayed during her visits to Venice. These apartments were opened to the public in July 2012 after restoration by the Comité français pour la sauvegarde de Venise.

The museum occupies the upper floors of the Procuratorie Nuove and the Napoleonic Wing, which closes the eastern end of Piazza San Marco opposite St. Mark's Basilica. The Procuratorie Nuove was designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi in 1582 as part of the reorganization of the piazza begun by Sansovino in the mid-sixteenth century; the ten arcades beyond Sansovino's Library were completed between 1586 and 1596, and the remainder was finished by Baldassarre Longhena around 1640. In January 1807 Napoleon decreed that this building become the Imperial Palace, and the interiors were redecorated in Neoclassical taste. The Napoleonic Wing, designed by Giuseppe Soli and Lorenzo Santi, was added to incorporate the palace complex. After 1814 the palace served as a residence for the Habsburgs, with Emperor Francis I staying there in 1815. Following Venice's incorporation into unified Italy in 1866, the building passed to the House of Savoy. In 1919 Victor Emmanuel III transferred it to the State for the Ministry of Education. The Museo Archeologico Nazionale was installed in part of the building in 1920, and the Museo Correr followed in 1922. The public rooms of the palace include a Ballroom, Throne Room, and Banqueting Hall, forming the core of the Napoleonic Gallery.

The Museo Correr is located in Piazza San Marco, Venice, and operates under the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. Since 1996 visitors have been able to purchase the St. Mark's Square Museums ticket, which grants access to the Museo Correr, the Doge's Palace, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, and the Monumental Rooms of the Biblioteca Marciana. The museum is the second most visited civic museum in Venice after the Doge's Palace, attracting nearly 350,000 visitors in 2022. The institution also organizes temporary exhibitions of both historical and modern art, as well as exhibitions on contemporary themes.