I can tell you that the Palazzo Miani Coletti Giusti, which houses part of the art collection of Baron Giorgio Franchetti (the bulk of which is more famously situated at its illustrious next-door-neighbor Ca' D'Oro), was completed in 1766 and designed by the Venice-born architect Antonio Visentini, who, three decades earlier, had gained prominence as the engraver or Canaletto's first series of Venetian views. I can't, however, tell you who these two busts high on the facade of Palazzo Miani Coletti Giusti are supposed to be--but I suspect someone might do so in the comments below.
Happy New Year! Best wishes for you, your family and friends!
ReplyDeleteThese photos, taken I suppose in the winter low-angled morning sunlight, are really beautiful. Nice statues and very expressive portraits of the same elderly man. There is no precise information on the Palazzo Miani Coletti Giusti in art books and guide books. In fact the information is always the same and very short. Except in one book, where it is said that Visentini was eighty year old when he designed the facade. No information about the sculptor and the sculptures. Nothing in particular in the reference guide book “Venezia e il suo estuario”; but I may have an old edition. More interesting, in one book of photos published in the 1990s gathering all the façades of the Canale Grande, the two statues in the low part of the palace are present at the same place, but there is no bust at the third floor. At that time, the facade was washed-out and greyish. So I suppose there was later a restoration at the same time as the Ca’ d’Oro and the two busts were then put at their current place. More information about the busts may be found from the artistic administration of the Ca’ d’Oro? There were many portraits of elderly men, in particular statues, during the Venetian baroque times. Are they Neptune’s portraits? These statues make me think of the famous painting by Giambattista Tiepolo “Venice receiving gifts of sea from Neptune” in the Palazzo Ducale or in the Academia (I don’t remember). Probably also a nostalgic mood of an old Republic for the youth age. Many thanks for these photos. (from Auvraisien)
Happy New Year to you and yours, too, Auvraisien, and thanks for some excellent insights into the busts. They do indeed resemble Tiepolo's Neptune in Palazzo Ducale, and it's interesting that you had no luck finding any other references to the busts--as no one else seems to have either. As you can see in my reply below, even an administrator at Ca D'Oro knew nothing about them.
DeleteAnd because this palazzo was also owned by Baron Franchetti, who owned Ca' D'Oro, it raises a number of intriguing questions and opens up the possibility that--as was the case of Franchetti's restoration/recreation of the courtyard of Ca D'Oro--these busts may not be, strictly speaking, "historical", in the sense of ever having been intended for those niches by the architect. Franchetti had a great deal of historical knowledge but he didn't allow himself to be constrained by it. Did Visentini ever intend for these particular busts to be in these niches or did Franchetti, knowing, as JCB points out in his comment below, of the architect's other work with the Tiepolo's, decide (as a connoisseur and decorator) that they'd go well in the niches, even if not intended for them?
Also: Were these busts *ever* in the niches--say, in the 18th C--before recent years? Did Franchetti himself ever have them there? Did he intend to place them there, but never realized his wish during his lifetime?
I guess, at bottom, the question is from whence springs the inspiration for their placement, how far back does it go? I'll write to the Director of Galleria Franchetti and hope to find out.
Those busts definitely seem to have been modelled on figures by Giambattista or Giandomenico Tiepolo. It's perhaps relevant that prior to designing the facade of this palazzo, Visentini had worked at the Villa Valmarana in Vicenza, where both GB and GD Tiepolo were employed.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for a great lead, JCB, it makes a lot of sense. I visited Ca' D'Oro yesterday and asked about the busts on the facade and was directed to a specific administrator who, though quite nice and helpful in other ways, could give me no information about them. She gave me the email address of the Director of the Galleria Franchetti, to whom I'll now write.
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