Ca' Pesaro Museum - Santa Croce 2076 - Venice Italy
The Ca' Pesaro Civic Museum is located inside the Santa Croce district, on the right bank of the Canal Grande, not far from the stops of San Stae and Riva de Biasio.
It houses an important collection of art dating back to the nineteenth and twentieth century and an important collection of oriental art.
Ca' Pesaro Museum
On three floors there is one of the most important art collections in the city: on the first floor the most important and conspicuous part with the exhibition of paintings and sculptures of the nineteenth and twentieth century both Italian and European; on the second floor the space is dedicated to abstract installations of the last part of the twentieth century and to the third, there is a very important collection of oriental art (Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian) due to Enrico di Borbone and his passion for do you travel.
The Japanese collection shines especially for the presence of blades.
Among the works exhibited at Ca 'Pesaro there are some masterpieces of the twentieth century; paintings by Khnopff, von Stuck, Klimt, Kandinsky, Nolde, Bonnard, Rodin, Arp, Ernst, Moore, Boccioni, Valeri, Casorati, Martini, Rossi, Moggioli, Cadorin, Cagnaccio di San Pietro, Donghi, Carr�, Sironi, are on display. de Pisis, de Chirico, Guidi, Campigli, Morandi, Licini, Rosai.
Masterpieces of the Ca' Pesaro Museum
Painting
- November by Telemaco Signorini (1870)
- The Guidini Family by Giacomo Favretto (1873)
- The Explosion by Giovanni Fattori (1880)
- Sewing the sail of Joaqu�n Sorolla (1896)
- End of a summer day: Egloga by Mario de Maria (1899-1909)
- The Christmas of those left behind by Angelo Morbelli (1903)
- The Birth of Venus by Ettore Tito (1903)
- Medusa by Franz von Stuck (1908)
- Judith II by Gustav Klimt (1909)
- Flowering plants by Emil Nolde (1909)
- Portrait of the sister reading by Umberto Boccioni (1909)
- Le Signorine by Felice Casorati (1912)
- Maternity by Gino Rossi (1913)
- The Rabbi by Chagall (1914-22)
- Zig Zag whites by Kandinsky (1922)
- Cityscape by Mario Sironi (1924)
- The Race of Aleksandr Deyneka (1930)
- Donna at Caff� by Antonio Donghi (1931)
- Nude in the Mirror by Pierre Bonnard (1931)
- Mysterious Baths by Giorgio De Chirico (1935)
- Building and destroying by Yves Tanguy (1940)
- Great Landscape by Filippo De Pisis (1948)
- Still life by Giorgio Morandi (1948)
- Poisonous Yellow on December 5th by Ben Nicholson (1949)
- The Wheaterman by Max Ernst (1950)
- Untitled by Joan Mir� (1950)
- Europa 1951 by Emilio Vedova (1951)
- Red, yellow and blue gongs by Alexander Calder (1951)
- Wall and Algae by Giuseppe Santomaso (1954)
- Autumn campaign by Ennio Morlotti (1956)
- Precipice by Mark Tobey (1957)
- Tremor III by Eduardo Chillida (1957)
- Wind and Sun by Zoran Mu�ic (1958)
Sculpture
- The Bourges of Calais by Auguste Rodin (1889)
- Yvette Guilbert by Medardo Rosso (1895)
- Veiled Woman by Medardo Rosso (1895)
- Madame X by Medardo Rosso (1896)
- Man with leather bag by George Minne (1897)
- Man who is silent by Adolfo Wildt (1899)
- Ecce Puer by Medardo Rosso (1906)
- Proud character, gentle soul by Adolfo Wildt (1912)
- Alou with talons by Hans Arp (1942)
Architecture
Palazzo Pesaro was built, designed by the architect Baldassarre Longhena (1659) and completed on his death by Gian Antonio Gaspari (1710), at the behest of the powerful patrician family of Pesaro, belonging to the Casate Nove entered in the Maggior Consiglio before the Serrata (1297), right when Doge della Serenissima was Giovanni Pesaro elected on April 8th 1658.
The fa�ade on the Grand Canal is divided into 3 levels; the ground level features ashlar decoration with diamond points in which there are two large doors with a round arch and a stone mask placed in the key in front of the elegant curved staircase that comes out of the water. Between the two doors there is a smaller niche with a round arch, while on the side there are two rows of rectangular windows separated by a stone frame. 14 leonine protomes mark the lower edge of the fa�ade.
The levels above each have 7 openings, with a round arch resting on twin columns, separated on the fa�ade by protruding columns placed on a base that become coupled in correspondence with the load-bearing walls of the building. Each level has a balustrade and a row of seven masks on the top frieze, but the third level by Gaspari, is enriched with sculptures in the sails of the arched windows and between the twin columns placed on the fa�ade and wth decorations projecting in trabeation.
The architecture thus creates a strong chiaroscuro effect that makes Ca' Pesaro one of the masterpieces of Venetian baroque.
The fa�ade along the Rio di S. Maria by Mater Domini with its interesting curvilinear profile is also monumental.
Today's entrance to the museum is through the beautiful courtyard with a monumental well, where a portal is separated by ashlar columns that on the first level become quadrangular with an Ionic capital separating architraved windows.
Internally there is a long and wide entrance hall that ends in the two water doors with wooden beamed ceilings and floors made of Verona marble and Istrian stone that form geometric ornamental motifs. The walls have ashlar decoration as on the fa�ade only in correspondence with the doors and windows' frames, on whose sides there are shelves with sculptural busts.
History
Palazzo Pesaro was designed by the architect Baldassarre Longhena in Baroque style and completed on his death by Gian Antonio Gaspari (1710). The result is one of the best examples of Baroque in the city and one of the most striking palaces overlooking the banks of the Grand Canal.
Passed from Pesaro to Gradenigo and then to the Armenian Mechitarist Fathers who assigned it to an educational college, Ca' Pesaro was finally bought by the Duchess Felicita Bevilacqua, wife of General La Masa, and left as a legacy to the City of Venice to be destined to become a gallery of modern art for the young artists of the city. So it was that in the early '900 the building housed the paintings of some of the major representatives of the art by that time alternative to the "official" circuit promoted by the Biennale as Arturo Martini, Felice Casorati, Guido Marussig, Gino Rossi, Tullio Garbari, Pio Semeghini, Umberto Moggioli, a group that has gone down in history like the Rebels of Ca' Pesaro.
In 1902 the City of Venice chooses Ca' Pesaro as permanent home of the International Gallery of Modern Art, to exhibit a collection that over the years is enriched with purchases (from the Art Biennale of the beginning) and donations (of important collectors private: in 1897 of the prince Alberto Giovanelli, then of the baron Edoardo Franchetti who brought his collection of oriental art to the palace, of the baron Ernst Seeger, of Filippo Grimani and finally of the Venetian Industrialists and Traders Association).
In 1914, the famous waxes of Medardo Rosso enter the Pesaro collection, while the important Donation by De Lisi dates back to the 1960s, displaying works by Morandi, De Chirico, Carr�, Kandisky, Mir�, Matta in the Gallery of Modern Art. Last in order of time the Donation Wildt (1990).
But the visit to Ca' Pesaro can not ignore the observation of the architectural details of the building and of the frescoes still present in the various rooms; among the authors of these paintings Children, Pittoni, Crosato, Trevisani, Brusaferro. From here the fresco by Gian Battista Tiepolo depicting Zephyr and Flora was transported to the Museum of Ca' Rezzonico (1935).
How to reach the Ca' Pesaro Museum
The Ca' Pesaro Museum is located in Santa Croce overlooking the Grand Canal. The nearest boat stop is San Stae.
From Piazza San Marco, from Rialto, from the Railway Station and from Piazzale Roma, take line 1 with San Stae stop.Watch the Video by Venice Civic Museums of Ca' Pesaro Museum
|
Boat Tickets. Coming to Venice? Book in advance and skip the line!
Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Basilica's Tour - Saint Mark's Square - Venice