Objects of vertu at the Querini Stampalia museum

Published: 2009 - September/October, Cultural and Artistic Paths

One of the lagoon city’s richest art collections, where baroque and neoclassical furniture, sculptures, globes and more than 400 paintings from the 14th to the 19th centuries (mostly from the Venetian school) evoke the atmosphere of a patrician residence, with its mirrors, Murano glass chandeliers and fabrics woven after ancient designs: this is the Museum of Interiors of the Querini Stampalia Foundation – this and more, for it also provides visitors with a chance to explore the world of vertu, expression of the of the producing era’s taste and fashion.The definite show-piece is the precious dinner service in Sèvres china, purchased in 1795-96 in Paris by Alvise Querini, the last ambassador of the Republic of Venice to France. The service is composed of 244 pieces, all still in perfect condition, and enriched by sculptures and figurines in biscuit, in the styles of Louis XV and Louis XVI.
Furthermore, the museum exhibits 18th century china from Vienna, pieces from the Cozzi factory of Venice, bucolic statuettes from the manufactory Antonibon that was located in the town of Nove (Veneto region), and one of the most valuable objects from the “Superior House” Vezzi, the “Double-Handled Vase”: in polychromic china, dateable to about 1727, it’s cone-shaped with spiraled handles, embossed ornaments, and the central part decorated with flowers, dragonflies, birds and tendrils, in the traditional colors of this Venetian factory.
Recently, the collection has been further enriched by a remarkable group of chinaware and decorative objects, a donation by the architect Renato Padoan, son of Romano Padoan, an antique dealer and owner of the now closed shop called “Giuseppe Dominici”. This shop used to be located near San Marco, and for collectors and other culturally interested people, it represented one of the most important destinations in town throughout the 20th century. Bohemian glasses, ivories, enamelled tobacco tins, silver items, lacquered items, but above all chinaware and majolicas: all these “small objects” testify to the ingenuity and skills of the most elegant European manufactories of the 18th and 19th centuries, among them Meissen, Naples, Venice and Prague. Also part of the collection is the famous group “The Detected Lover” after a design by Kändler, from the Meissen manufactory.
Prompted by the publication of the Morandi Padoan Collection catalogue, a study day on Decorative Arts in Historical Residences has been scheduled for September 18th, 2009.
Complementing this event is an exhibition of Venice views from the 1920s to 1940s, all coming from the “Giuseppe Dominici” antique shop, and all photographed by Gianni Berengo Gardin: on display through Sunday, October 4th.

Querini Stampalia Fondation
Venice, Campo Santa Maria Formosa, Castello 5252
tel. +39-0412711411
www.querinistampalia.it