Mocenigo Family Collection, Mocenigo Palace-Museum

Palazzo Mocenigo is a large building of gothic origin extensively rebuilt at the beginning of the 17th century, when it attained its present appearance. From 17th century, the palazzo was the residence of the San Stae branch of the Mocenigo family, one of the most important families of the Venetian patriciate, seven members of which became doges between 1414 and 1778. The external façades looking on to the street (salizàda) and San Stae canal are characterised by their large Serlian windows, a common feature in Venetian architecture during the 17th and 18th centuries

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. Made of patterned fabrics embellished with embroidery and lace, they are testimony to the astounding expertise of scores of craftsmen and the refined, luxurious elegance for which the Venetians were famous.

The visit itinerary – completely renewed and enlarged in 2013 – winds through twenty rooms on the first noble floor , doubling the exhibition areas opened in 1985. With a setting conceived by Pier Luigi Pizzi, architect, director and scenographer of international renown, the furnishings and the paintings of the building have been integrated with a large number of works, from different sectors and deposits of the Civic Museums of Venice, with a work of recovery and enhancement of canvases and pastels, furnishings and glass, never exhibited before.

The environment as a whole evokes different aspects of the life and activities of the Venetian patriciate between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and is populated by mannequins wearing precious ancient clothes and accessories belonging to the Study Center for the History of Textile and Costume, attached to the Museum . Made of textured fabrics, embellished with embroidery and lace, they document the skill of the craftsmen of the time and the refined and luxurious elegance for which the Venetians were famous. They also allow you to appreciate the specificity of the museum regarding the history of fashion and its continuous evolutionary variations, both from the point of view of textiles and clothing.

Precisely this specificity has inspired the creation of a new section dedicated to a particular aspect of the history of Venetian costume, that of perfume, so far little studied, highlighting the fundamental role of the city in the origins of this aesthetic, cosmetic and entrepreneurial tradition.

So if on the main floor, in the six rooms dedicated to perfume perfectly integrated into the exhibition suggestions of the whole museum, multimedia tools and sensorial experiences alternate in an unprecedented path of information, emotion and insight, on the ground floor a Multimedia Room is open to the public. , an equipped Perfume Laboratory and a White Room : space intended for temporary rotating events.

Portego
The paintings on display here are either nearly all portraits of the Mocenigo family or depict events in which they were involved. Four of the large portraits of the walls are of the sovereigns under whom the Mocenigo family were ambassadors, while two of the seven doges from the family are portrayed above the door and the others in the long frieze below the ceiling – inspired by the one in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in the Doge’s Palace -, together with numerous illustrious members of the family.

Room 1
The paintings in this room all belong to the museum and are of famous members of the branch of the Mocenigo family that lived here. The two paintings by Antonio Joli (Modena, 1700 – Naples, 1777) are set in Rome and refer to Piero Mocenigo (1632-1678), first ambassador to London and then in the city of the Pope pastels by Francesco Pavona (Udine, 1695 – Venice, 1777) portray the Doge Alvise IV, his wife Pisa Corner and a brother.

Room 2
In this room the 18th-century carved, lacquered furniture belonging to the palazzo is on display with contemporary blown glass from Murano and the paintings on the walls are from the Correr Museum collections. The valuable silk fabrics belong to the Study Centre of the History of Fabrics and Costumes – as do all the fabrics on display in the museum -, while all the Chinese porcelains come from the Treasury of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. The ceiling fresco goes back to the period of the extensive decorations carried out in the palazzo on the occasion of Doge Alvise IV’s grandson’s wedding to Laura Corner. Here we can see the allegorical figures of Fame, Glory, and Hymen, god of marriages.

Room 3
On the table, decorated with a handmade lace tablecloth from Burano, and on the consoles is 18th-century Murano glass blown and worked by hand, while the Venetian made bottles and glasses are in ‘Bohemian’ style. The furniture belongs to the palazzo and is all from the eighteenth century, except the screen which is dated later; the paintings on the walls come from the Correr Museum and Ca’ Rezzonico collections. The allegorical fresco on the ceiling alludes to military value, guarantor of peace, prosperity and good government.

Room 4
The carved, lacquered, and gilded 19th-century furniture belongs to the palazzo; the glass pieces decorating it – from the Murano Museum – go back to the 18th century with the exception of the multicoloured filigree candleholder on the table, which is dated later. Of the paintings, the Virgin by the Bellini school belongs to the palazzo’s collections, as do the chandelier and multi-coloured wall lights in the shape of bouquets of flowers (‘a cioca’) from the eighteenth century. The Mocenigo coat-of-arms stands out on the Venetian stucco floor, while once again the ceiling fresco alludes to marriage, with Hymen coming down from heaven, the bride with the pierced heart, Cupid, Poetry and the fertility of Spring.

Room 5
The paintings in this room depict war scenes or family events related to the Mocenigo family. The naval battle is, for instance, a fight near the Island of Sapienza in Greece between pirates and Venetians led by Zaccaria Mocenigo (1634 – 1665), who preferred to set fire to his ship and die rather than fall into enemy hands. The ceiling fresco is surrounded by extensive perspective tromp l’oeil and depicts pairs of allegorical figures that are the apotheosis of the family. Of particular value the chandelier – originally part of this room’s furnishings – in blown glass and hand worked into bouquets of flowers (‘a cioca’), attributed to the most important Venetian glassmaker in the 18th century, Giuseppe Briati (Murano 1686 – Venice 1772).

Room 6
In this small room with its multicoloured stuccoes, is on display and a series of paintings from the Correr Museum.

The Mocenigo Family
For centuries, the Palazzo Mocenigo at San Stae (the name is a Venetian dialect version of Sant’Eustachio) was home to the Mocenigo family, one of the most important amongst the Venetian nobility.

According to some, the family originally came from Lombardy, according to others from Aquileia; but whatever the truth is, the Mocenigo would provide Venice with a total of 7 doges:

Tommaso (1414-23)
Pietro (1474-76)
Giovanni (1478-85)
Alvise I (1570-77; doge at the time of the victorious Battle of Lepanto)
Alvise II (1700-1709)
Alvise III (1722-32)
Alvise IV (1763-78)

The family also supplied the State with numerous procuratori (administrators), ambassadors, sea and land captains, clergymen, and men of letters. The main branch of the family used to live in the palace at San Samuele, whilst the branch descended from Nicolò Mocenigo, brother of Doge Alvise I, settled in the San Stae palace at the beginning of the 17th century.

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.