Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Venice: Palazzo Ducale – Acqua e Cibo a Venezia Exhibition

  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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