Photograph courtesy Musei
Civici di Venezia
Venice:
Palazzo Ducale – Acqua e Cibo a Venezia Exhibition. At Palazzo Ducale, right inside the Doge’s apartments, the
beautiful exhibition Acqua e Cibo a Venezia, Water and Food in
Venice, until February 14, curated by Donatella
Calabi, with scientific coordination by Gabriella Belli. The detailed,
heterogeneous exhibition is dedicated to Venice and the complex network of
support systems that the city acquired over the centuries so it could develop,
grow and prosper. The visitor is submerged in a highly in vocative and
enthralling experience by the works on display which are accompanied by the
“digital narration” of paintings, video-projections on 3D models
of the lagoon, and virtual reconstruction.
Above. Pietro
Longhi (attr.) – Banquet at Casa Nani on the Guidecca – 1755 – oil on
canvas - cm
130x97 - Venezia,
Ca’ Rezzonico, Museo del Settecento Veneziano.
Palazzo
Ducale - Water and Food in Venice. The itinerary of the exhibition is divided into five
thematic sections with the aim of underlining the unique nature of Venice, and
the constant efforts its inhabitants made to make the city into the one we know
it today.
Above. Detail, Drawing of
the Venice Lagoon – 1763 – ink and watercolor on paper – conservative
restoration 2015.
Curator
Donatella Calabi
Section
I - The Lagoon Changes. The first section, The
Lagoon Changes, uses 3D models to illustrate the morphological
and hydraulic transformation processes of the territory that endemically
conditioned not only food production, water supplies but also communication
paths to and from the mainland. changes.
Above.
Benedetto Bordone (1460-1531) – Vinegia (Venice) – in Isolario di Benedetto
Bordone nel qual si ragiona di tutte l”isole del mondo (…), impresse in
Vinegia, for Nicolo d’Aristotile, called Zoppino, 1534.
Section
II - Water and Food in the Lagoon and on the Mainland. The
second section, Water and Food in
the Lagoon and on the Mainland, not only offers an overview of the difficulty
of food production in lands washed by salty waters, but also describes retail
and its protagonists frutaroli (greengrocers), pistori (pastry makers) and
fishermen. Tintoretto’s monumental painting on loan from the Academy Galleries,
(Jacopo Tintoretto, The Creation of
the Animals, 1550-1553), above, also offers a sample of the
species present in the amphibious Venetian environment, characterized by an
incredible variety of fish and birds.
Section II - Water
and Food in the Lagoon and on the Mainland
Fishing net samples – trattorello and
tela costanza – forbidden by law and included as evidence of a crime in the
file for legal proceedings against several fishermen – 1761 – canvas applied
and glued on paper.
Section II - Water
and Food in the Lagoon and on the Mainland
Gabriel Bella (1730-1799) - Fishing
in the Orfano Canal
eighteenth century – oil on canvas
Section II - Water
and Food in the Lagoon and on the Mainland
detail – Signboard of the Cook’s
Guild
1738 – oil on canvas
Photograph courtesy Musei
Civici di Venezia
Section II - Water
and Food in the Lagoon and on the Mainland
Pietro Longhi -
La Polenta
1740 – oil on
canvas - cm 61x50
Venezia, Ca’
Rezzonico, Museo del Settecento Veneziano
Section II - Water
and Food in the Lagoon and on the Mainland
(Drawings of vases, cake tins,
saucepans)
Opera di Bartolomeo Scappi maestro
dell’arte del cucinare (…)
Venetia – Alessandro de’ Vecchi
1622 – halcography
Section II - Water
and Food in the Lagoon and on the Mainland
Pietro Longhi workshop – Banquet in
a Villa
second half of the eighteenth
century – oil on canvas
Photograph courtesy Musei
Civici di Venezia
Section II - Water
and Food in the Lagoon and on the Mainland
Giovanni Grevembroch (1731-1807)
(attr.) – drawing of cabbage leaves
eighteenth century – watercolor- mm 310x218x55 (closed)mmm 310x445 (open)
Venezia, Biblioteca del Museo Correr
Section III - Banquets, Parades, Games and Festivals.
The third section Banquets, Parades,
Games and Festivals uses multiple archive sources to offer an
overview of the theme of food from a social perspective. The local festivals,
social events and occasions when food becomes a pretext for gatherings and
comparison are illustrated with a series of representative paintings including
Convito in Casa Nani alla Giudecca (Pietro Longhi - attr., 1775).
Above. Gabriel Bella (1730-1799) – Dinner at the San Benedetto Theater for
the Dukes of the North – 1782 – oil on canvas.
Section III - Banquets, Parades, Games and Festivals
Francesco Guardi (1712-1793) – Wedding Banquet for
the Duke of Polignac
end of eighteenth century – black pencil, brush,
brown ink and colored watercolors
Section III - Banquets, Parades, Games and Festivals
Veneto artist – Forze d’Ercole dei Castellani
1717 – oil on paper and canvas
Photograph courtesy Musei
Civici di Venezia
Section IV - Architecture
and Food. Architecture and Food then
focuses on buildings that were used for the harvest and distribution of food
resources: monasteries, military garrisons, hospitals and inns. These numerous
documents describe a detailed system of exchange and rules that were part of
the Venetian lifestyle and a guarantee of their prosperity (Insegna dell’arte
dei Pestrineri, 16th cent.). The virtual
reconstruction of “Cantina Do Spade”, which still exists today in the district
of San Polo in Venice, offers the visitor the opportunity to have an evocative
experience of how a client asking for food and lodging was actually welcomed in
the historical inn in 1754.
Above. (Case, orti e terreni vacui
della “commissaria” di Piero Brustolado presso il ponte Piccolo alla Giudecca)
- post 1474 – ink and watercolor on
paper - mm 290x425; mm -
Archivio di Stato di Venezia.
Section IV - Architecture
and Food
(Sketch-map
of the far northeastern part of the shores of Sant’Erasmo, with the marshlands
opposite perspective view of the island of San Francesco del Deserto)
18
September 1687 drawing attached to the report by the lagoon proto Domenico
Margutti – ink and watercolor on paper
Section IV - Architecture
and Food
Gabriel
Bella (1730-1799) – A Morning Walk to the Rialto Erberia
eighteenth
century – oil on canvas
Section IV - Architecture
and Food
Andrea
Tirali – (Shop at Ponte della Pescheria at saint Mark)
18
August 1734 – ink and watercolor on paper
Section IV - Architecture
and Food
List
of food that has to be distributed everyday in the Pio Hospital of the Pieta
2
and 4 October 1712 – January 1713 – print on paper
Section V - Surrounded by Water.
The fifth section, Surrounded by Water,
describes the paradox of a city that, to quote Marin Sanudo, “is in the
water and has no water”. The water supply system is described with a series of
maps and iconographic images illustrating how water was transported from the mainland
to the lagoon (Giovanni Grevembroch, Deficienza provveduta, second half of
eighteenth century).
Above. Andrea Zucchi (1679-1740?) –
Elements Opposing One Another – in Bernardo Trevisan – Della Laguna di Venezia
(…) – 1715 – chalcography.
Section
V - Surrounded by Water
(Construction of a Cistern)
eighteenth century – pen and pencil on paper
Section
V - Surrounded by Water
Giovanni Grevembroch (1731-1807) – Dei piu antichi
pozzi di Venezia
1761 – interactive consultation
Section
V - Surrounded by Water
Giovanni Grevembroch (1731-1807) – Deficienza
Proveduta
In Gli abiti de Veneziani di quasi ogni eta con
deligenza raccolti e dipinti nel secolo XVIII
Second half-eighteenth century – watercolored plate
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