Art Museums, Venice

Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti is now the home of the Veneto Institute for Sciences, Letters and Arts. The building has got a very long history with various owners. Some parts of the palace were made by Archduke Frederick of Austria, and the Count of Chambord. Later, the seal was set on the alterations to the palace by Camillo Boito (1836-1914), who also produced a masterpiece in the monumental stairway, justly admired to this day. Passing in 1922 from Sarah Luisa de Rotschild (Baron Raimondo Franchetti’s widow) to Medio Credito delle Venezie, the palace now belonging to the Veneto Institute.

This nice palace was erected in the second half of the 15th Century. Built in the Gothic floreal style, it underwent several expansions and restorations began in the early 16th Century and flnished in the mid 18th Centurv. The wonderfully elaborate Baroque decoration inside, is the work of the most outstanding Venetian artists of the 18th Century such as Giambattista Tiepolo, Jacopo Guarana, Gaspare Diziani and Giuseppe Angeli. Thanks to the restoration work of the last decade, the re-establishment of its art collections and the recovery of its original antique furnishings.

Palazzo Treves de'Bonfili was built in the 17th century by Bartolomeo Monopola. Inside the palace there are two fantastic stautes made by Antonio Canova: Ettore and Aiace located in a room created and painting by Giuseppe Borsato.

Ma Kettle and I were amazed to find exhibits by this artist with a sign saying 'TOUCH ME'. Artists normally want the exact opposite.

Being Canadian, Ma and I were compliant with the request, and reached down to floor level in order to squeeze and fondle a large display of heavy rubber membrane baloons, piled one on top of the other. Much to our surprise, instead of our fingers sinking into a rubbery mass, we encountered the hard surface of blown glass, coated with a flat black paint.

The artist Hiromi, creates the glass balls, by blowing each piece seperately, and while still red hot, fitting each sphere to sit perfectly on top of one another.

The picture is of the same type of glass sphere, except as you can see, these look much like balls of mercury spilled from a thermometer.

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In an old church, near the archives of Venice, was an exhibition of this kind of artwork.
Beautiful & impressive & confusing for mind and eyes.
I think this was put out here to point people to the exhibition but unfortunately there was no further information.

Canal-entrance to an art gallery, too bad we did not have time to visit any of those.
This picture shows what I like about Venice: they are not trying to make old buildings look new and shiny, no they just allow the buildings to be their age without looking run down or anything.

Fabulous, isn't it? Errrrr, I didn't buy it, would love to, but, it's the beginning of the tour & it's just not feasible to do all shopping here! Next time, yes, next time, Venice shall be my last stop ;-)!