Design[edit]
Ca' Rezzonico stands on the right bank of the canal, at the point where it is joined by the Rio di San Barnaba. The site was previously occupied by two houses belonging to the Bon family, one of Venice's patrician families. In 1649 the head of the family, Filippo Bon decided to build a large palazzo on the site. For this purpose he employed Baldassarre Longhena, the greatest proponent of Venetian Baroque, a style slowly replacing the Renaissance and Palladian architectural style of such palazzi as (its near neighbour) Palazzo Balbi and Palazzo Grimani built over 100 years previously. However, neither architect nor client was to see the completion of the Palazzo Bon: Longhena died in 1682, and Filippo Bon suffered a financial collapse.
The design was for a three-story marble façade facing the canal. The ground floor rusticated, containing a central recessed portico of three bays without a pediment, symmetrically flanked by windows in two bays. Above this the piano nobile of seven bays of arched windows, separated by pilasters, above this the "second piano nobile" was near identical, and above this a mezzanine floor of low oval windows. The slight projection of the two tiers of balconies to the piano nobili accentuate the baroque decoration and design of the building. The palazzo today follows this form, although it was not finished until 1756 by the architect Giorgio Massari, who had been brought in to oversee the completion of the project by the new owners - the Rezzonico Family. Massari however, seems to have adhered to the original plans of Longhena, with the addition of some concepts of his own which reflected the change in architecture between the palazzo's conception and its completion 100 years later.
The Rezzonico family[edit]
The unfinished palazzo had been bought from the impoverished Bon family by Giambattista Rezzonico. His family, like their friends at the Palazzo Labia, had bought their noble Venetian status in the mid-17th century following a war with Turkey, when the Venetian state coffers were depleted. Hence the mere rich, as opposed to the wealthy aristocracy, could make a large donation to the Serene Republic, thus purchasing patents of nobility and having their names inscribed in the Libro d'Oro (the "Golden Book").
A Canaletto painting of the early 18th century[2] shows only the ground floor and first piano nobile completed, and a temporary roof protecting the structure from the elements. The completion of the palazzo symbolised the completion of the Rezzonico's upward social journey. The pinnacle of the Rezzonico's power and the Palazzo's grandeur came in 1758, when Carlo, son of Giambattista Rezzonico, was elected Pope as Clement XIII, the same year Ludovico Rezzonico married Faustina Savorgnan in Venice. Ludovico later became the procurator of St. Mark's Basilica. By 1810 the family had died out, leaving only their palazzo to preserve the Rezzonico name.
Interior[edit]
Unscaled and simplified sketch of the piano nobile showing layout of state rooms
In 1758, the newly completed palazzo was enhanced further, by the addition of frescos to the ceilings of the state rooms on the piano nobile overlooking the rio di San Barnaba. The artists selected for this task were Jacopo Guarana, Gaspare Diziani and most importantly Giambattista Tiepolo. These frescos remaining today are among the finest preserved in Venice.
The Palazzo's principal rooms are arranged on the 1st piano nobile; on all floors the famous canal facade is only three rooms wide. On each side of the building a suite of four state rooms lead from the grand canal facade to the largest room in the palazzo - the magnificent ballroom at the rear. This room, created by Massari, is of double height. The walls are decorated in trompe l'oeil by the Lombard Pietro Visconti. The images are of an architectural nature, which create the feeling that the large room is even more massive than it is. The ceiling, painted by Giovanni Battista Crosato, depicts Apollo riding his carriage between Europe, Asia, Africa and The Americas. The Ballroom and following state rooms are reached by the vast staircase of honour, its marble balustrades decorated with statuary by Giusto Le Court. Le Court the leading sculptor in Venice in the late 17th century worked closely on many projects with the first architect Longhena, which suggests the regal importance the ballroom and staircase give to the palazzo was one of the intentions of the patrician Bon family rather than the 'arriviste' Rezzonicos.
The piano nobile also contains such rooms as the Chapel, and the beautifully frescoed Nuptial Allegory Room decorated to celebrate the 1758 marriage of Ludovico Rezzonico. The ceiling has a trompe l'oeil depiction of the groom and his bride ferried by Apollo's chariot.[3] The frescoes in the adjoining room continues the celebration of the happy union. This room and the Palazzo Labia ballroom house major ceiling frescoes "in situ" by Tiepolo in