The Display of Art Collections In Venice (c. 1650-1850)

Profoundly different to the general European approaches to collecting, the display of art collections in Venice from the 17th to the 19th century is connected with the gradual transformation of the Venetian residences into a stage for exhibiting objects, which were meant to gather different kind of people who were involved with the owner and his collections. Most sources at our disposal to reconstruct the installation of Venetian art collections in the Early Modern Age are predominantly textual, since the original spaces in which the works of art were exhibited have been altered or destroyed and the objects scattered to various museums worldwide. How can we reconstruct the way these objects were shown and how they interacted with their environment? What was the role of the collectors in organizing the display in their galleries? The essay explore these questions taking into account textual evidence and visual documents such as inventories of works of art, views of Venetian interiors and guides for tourists.