INAUGURATION OF PALAZZO LOREDAN AFTER THE RESTORATION
Palazzo Loredan will be open to visitors on
Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 April 2009, from 2 to 7 pm;
from Monday 20 to Sunday 26 April, from 2.30 to 5.30 pm.
Entry free
information: tel 041 2407711www.istitutoveneto.it
The Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti brings the restoration of both its premises to completion.Ten years of work by the Venetian academy to upgrade places of monumental value and furnish them with the most modern technology.
The completion of the restorations that have been going on for ten years in the premises of the Istituto Veneto – Palazzo Loredan and Palazzo Franchetti – will be presented on Saturday 18 April.
Thanks to the Istituto’s efforts, Venice can now boast more than 8000 square metres of space in the heart of the old city centre that has been adapted to meet the most advanced research, study, exhibition and conference needs, with the utmost respect for the architectural and artistic features of the buildings.
The restoration works were coordinated by Fulvio Caputo’s CandC architectural studio in close cooperation with the Sovrintendenza per i beni architettonici di Venezia and the Comando dei Vigili del fuoco. The ‘Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti
1999 – 2009. Ideas, projects and restorations’ exhibition,
recounting the life of the historic academy and, especially, the restoration works carried out from 1999 to 2000, will be set up in the new spaces opened up on the ground floor of Palazzo Loredan. The visit to the exhibition will continue to the mezzanine and the piano nobile.
11th Cultural Week 2009
Palazzo Loredan will be open to the public on the occasion of its inauguration and during the 11th Cultural Week. Visitors will be able to go into the rooms that house the Panteon Veneto, a collection of busts by nineteenth-century artists, now in a new display, and see the exhibition showing the history of the Istituto, the works of restoration
and reorganisation of its premises and the book collections.
They will also be able to see a rare picture of Napoleon still in Venice, in a fresco discovered and restored during the works.
Palazzo Loredan
This state-owned palazzo has been the historic premises of the Istituto Veneto since 1891 and is where its academic activities take place. It houses the archives and the book and art collections assembled over the years by the Istituto.
The building takes up a good part of Campo Santo Stefano onto which it faces. Precious sixteenth-century works can be admired along the long sides and particularly on the north facade, completely clad in Istrian stone.The restoration, directed by the Istituto Veneto and the Magistrato alle Acque, involved a surface area of 3200 square metres, in more than sixty rooms on five different levels. The aim was to reorganise the activities inside, optimise the accessways, rationalise the working areas and furnish all the rooms, particularly those used for meetings and the academic meeting hall, with modern audio, video and data transfer equipment. Along with these works, all the rooms have been fitted with air-conditioning and now also comply with safety and fire prevention regulations; the roofs were repaired and the four facades restored. The work in the library was particularly demanding, with hundreds of thousands of books methodically put back in place.
Along with the functions traditionally related to the Istituto’s activities, an exhibition space was also added. This houses the permanent collection of the Panteon Veneto, but will also be used for temporary exhibitions.
The Panteon Veneto
The atrium of the Palazzo Loredan holds the Panteon Veneto, a historic collection of sculptures celebrating men distinguished in the arts, literature, science and government. The Panteon dates from 1847 and the 9th Conference of Italian Scientists, when the Istituto Veneto invited some of the leading sculptors of the period to take part in creating the collection. It was to be housed in the loggia of the Doge’s Palace, then occupied by the Istituto Veneto. The restoration work has allowed better appreciation of the collection and a new perception of the space by the use of light and colour.
The finding of the Napoleonic fresco
The works in the area beneath the academic meeting hall led to the discovery of a fresco that had been thought lost, painted by Giovanni Carlo Bevilacqua (Venice 1775–1849) and was part of a painting cycle celebrating Napoleon in Venice. It shows Napoleon’s return from Austerlitz, the victory that decided Venice’s move from the Austrian Empire to the Kingdom of Italy.
It is a work of considerable documentary and artistic importance, being one of the few testimonies of Napoleonic iconography remaining in Venice. Louis Baraguay d’Illiers, the French general who at the time occupied Palazzo Loredan and commissioned the fresco, appears among the figures shown next to Napoleon according to recent expert opinion.
Palazzo Franchetti
The spectacular palazzo in neo-gothic style, next to the historic premises, has been a centre of cultural life since 2004. In a few years it has become one of the most prestigious in the city and a point of reference at an international level.
Purchased by the Istituto in 1999 and then subject to an exacting restoration, Palazzo Franchetti is able to host conferences and exhibitions and is furnished with the most modern technology.
Thanks to the layout of the spaces, 4150 square metres overall excluding the garden, the building now houses research centres and corporations such as the World Health Organisation, the Regione del Veneto and Co.Ri.La. (Consorzio Ricerche Laguna).
The restoration work was carried out in two stages and on several inter-connected levels: architectural and artistic restoration (including areas of great decorative quality like the monumental staircase of 1886 designed by Camillo Boito), functional alteration of the spaces, technological modernisation and compliance with safety requirements, making it one of the few historic buildings in Venice with a fire prevention certificate.
Restorations to other buildings
Other buildings belonging to the Istituto Veneto were also upgraded in recent restorations. They include the Casa Minich, which currently houses the Centro Interuniversitario di Studi Veneti and the ECLT – European Center for Living Technology; and some properties along the Fondamenta delle Zattere, Venice, and in Mestre, now used for book storage.
