Not just a museum, Mocenigo Palace-Museum

The Venice Civic Museums Foundation promotes cultural itineraries to discover the heritage, history of the city of Venice and its museums . The “Not just a museum” proposals aim to enhance the museum offer within the framework of thematic itineraries involving different districts by making the permanent collections dialogue with the life and history of the city.

The discovery of the light spirit of the Rococo through its furnishings, fashion, art and aromas of the eighteenth century can only start from Ca ‘Mocenigo, the palace of the noble Venetian family that gave the Republic numerous doges, writers, ambassadors and heroes military.

“Not just a museum” adheres to the awareness campaign of the City of Venice. Discover the itineraries that interest the Museum of Palazzo Mocenigo:

Fragrances and colors in 18th century Venice
Palazzo Mocenigo and surroundings

A visit to discover the noble Mocenigo palace and its sumptuous eighteenth-century interiors, a path dedicated to fashion, furnishings, art, and the aromas of the time to which a large section of the museum is dedicated: a real novelty this intended to illustrate the history of master perfumers, essences and spices. And from the museum to the places that were the center of these important exchanges: Rialto and its markets, a great economic and financial center, a crossroads of goods and trades, frequented by merchants, nobles and common people, a fascinating world to be told.

In the rich rooms of the building you will discover the characteristic eighteenth-century passion for floral motifs, for soft shapes, delicate hues and pastel tones that dominate furniture and costumes and that still celebrate the joy of life of the time. A section of the building is dedicated to perfume; here you can get to know, and literally smell, the different bouquets of essences that the master perfumers knew how to merge skilfully to create lotions, creams and fragrances, whose recipes are still used today.

Room 7
Once again many of the paintings in this room depict stories of the Mocenigo family. Particularly striking is the large table that has been laid and is covered with valuable ancient 13th/14th-century fabrics. Of different kinds, these items have silver and gold thread, as can be seen in the extremely rare piece of allucciolato brocade reflecting the light and producing a sparkling effect. From the same period are the glass objects (chalices, fruit stands, plates), all of which are slightly fumè, mould blown and worked freely by hand. They are from Murano, as are some of the other pieces on display here that go back to the 18th century: the candleholders and mirror with frame (soaza) decorated with glass plates, enamel amorinos and racemes.

Room 8
All the portraits on display here are of Venetian patricians, some of which belong to the palazzo – as does the furniture. Others come from the Correr collections, such as the two original paintings on fabric dedicated to Doges of another important Venetian family, the Morosini. The 17th-century glass on the consoles is from Murano.

Men’s clothes, like most of the garments in this room, abandoning the severe models of the 16th and 17th centuries of military inspiration, assumed looser and more refined forms, adopting many of the features present in female fashion, such as copious lacework and embroidery. The gown was the official form of dress for patricians. Made of black fabric with large sleeves, for the Savi, Avogadori and heads of the Quarantia it had red lining while for the ducal Senators and Advisors it was completely red.

Room 9
The paintings in this room, of which only some belong to the palazzo, evoke marine settings whilst continuing the series of famous portraits. On the left of a 19th century portrait of one of the Mocenigo doges, there is a meditative portrait of Gregorio XII, pope at the beginning of the fifteenth century, coming from the noble Venetian Correr family and one of the few to abdicate as pope. On the right is a portrait of the noble scholar Marcantonio Michiel. On the table are 16th-century ciselè soprarizzo velvets and contemporary glass pieces, mould blown or worked freely by hand. The 18th century pieces of furniture belong to the palazzo.

Room 10
The paintings by Antonio Stom on display here belong to the series of the “Splendours of the Mocenigo Family”. They refer to the visit of Princess Violante Beatrice of Bavaria (1673/1731), wife of Ferdinando de’ Medici, in the territory of the Republic of Venice, being received by a member of the Mocenigo family. The charcoal on the bureau depicts Costanza, wife of the last Mocenigo, who lived in the palazzo, bequeathing it to the city last century. The 20th century photographs depict members of the Aosta branch of the Savoia family. On the table at the back of the room are eight valuable ancient fabrics and glass from different periods: the filigree plate and the three fumé buckets go back to the 16th century, the fruit stands and candleholders to the 18th, the chalcedony chalice to the 19th and the goblet to the 20th century. The furniture is from the 18th/19th centuries and only some pieces belong to the palazzo.

Room 11
The room is dedicated to this classical male garment with more then fifty samples on display, from the Cini deposits in the collections of the Study Centre of Textile and Costume annexed to the museum. Knee long, completely buttoned up in the front and made of a valuable fabric, the waistcoat became common at the end of the 17th century. It was worn under the jacket; the front was usually made of silk and the back of linen or cotton. In that period it still had sleeves and was mainly meant as protection against the cold. It later changed form: in the 18th century – the period the models on display here were made – it was shortened and reached just below the waist, ending with two ‘tails’. At the end of the century it no longer had sleeves, but sometimes had a collar instead.

Room 12. The Mocenigo legacy also included a complex of noble archives of outstanding importance. It includes collections covering a period from the 11th to the 12th century, offering a selection of 205 archive bundles. This is a collection of outstanding historical and documentary importance that has not yet been studied in depth.

Textile and Costume Collection
Men’s clothes, like most of the garments in this room, abandoning the severe models of the 16th and 17th centuries of military inspiration, assumed looser and more refined forms, adopting many of the features present in female fashion, such as copious lacework and embroidery. The gown was the official form of dress for patricians. Made of black fabric with large sleeves, for the Savi, Avogadori and heads of the Quarantia it had red lining while for the ducal Senators and Advisors it was completely red.

In women’s clothing light fabrics, of clear tints, were preferred; skirts were puffed out at the waist by paniers; the tight-fitting bodices presented ample decolletés and cascades of lace hung from the sleeves. In the early decades of the century a new model of dress affirmed itself, in response to a desire for greater freedom of movement: the andrienne, known as the andrié in Venice, with pleated tail that descended from the shoulders, widening out to a broad train.

Of exceptional historical and artistic value is the collection of fabrics from the Vittorio Cini collections: 172 of sacred vestments, cloths and wallpapers dated from the 15th to the 18th century, of Venetian, Tuscan and Lyon manufacture, with some specimens of Flanders and Asia Minor. The collection is of particular interest not only for the high quality of the pieces, but also for the unusual dimensions of the fabrics, which make it unique in Italy.

The collections from the Museo Correr are rich and varied, which include materials acquired mostly in the years between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when, in the context of the general revaluation of the decorative arts, interest in this sector spread.

Also noteworthy is the acquisition of the collection of ancient fabrics, both oriental and western, which belonged to Mariano Fortuny’s mother and aunt. A nucleus of almost five hundred artifacts that inspired Fortuny’s work who, thanks to a visual attendance of the ancient textile modules, reworked the modules for his printed velvets.

Mocenigo Palace-Museum
The Museo di Palazzo Mocenigo is a palazzo near the Church of San Stae, south of the Grand Canal in the sestiere of Santa Croce in Venice, Italy. It is now a museum of fabrics and costumes, run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia.

The family’s last descendent, in 1945 Alvise Nicolò bequeathed the palazzo to the city on the condition it became an “Art Gallery to complete the Correr Museum“; thirty years later, following his wife’s death, it was then left to the city. Opened to the public in 1985, it became the seat of the Study Centre of the History of Textiles, Costumes and Perfume, housing the vast collections of ancient fabrics and clothes belonging to the Venice Civic Museums – most of which came from the Correr, Guggenheim, Cini and Grassi collections. Palazzo Mocenigo also contains a well-stocked library specialising in the history of fabrics, costumes, and fashion. The library is situated in the rooms on the first-floor piano nobile that have not conserved their original furnishings; the stocks of fabrics and costumes are situated on the first mezzanine and on the top-floor.

Completely renewed and expanded at the end of 2013, the itinerary winds its way through twenty rooms on the first piano nobile, therefore doubling theamount of exhibition area compared to when it opened in 1985. As a whole, the rooms skilfully evoke the different aspects of the life and activities of a Venetian nobleman between the 17th and 18th century, and on display are mannequins wearing valuable ancient garments and accessories that belong to the Study Centre connected to the Museum.

Paying particular attention to the history of the city, fashion and costumes have therefore always played a key role in the studies and exhibitions of the museums in the aristocratic setting of the Palazzo Mocenigo.