The Palazzo Foscarini in Venice and the Celebration Honoring the Dukes of Modena (1749) in a Getty Research Institute Manuscript

Abstract

Getty Research Journal, no. 11 (2019): 1–16 © 2019 Linda Borean. English translation © 2019 The J. Paul Getty Trust On 3 August 1749, on the occasion of the departure from Venice of Francesco III d’Este, Duke of Modena (1698–1780), a sumptuous ball was organized at the palazzo Foscarini ai Carmini. This imposing edifice, while now unembellished (fig. 1), still dominates its surroundings; it sits across from the homonymous bridge and is well known for having hosted various significant figures in European history, beginning with Henry III, King of France, when he visited Venice in 1574 (fig. 2).1 An expression of the Republic of Venice’s long-standing tradition of hospitality to foreigners, private receptions were part of a broader context of a political and cultural society that, over the centuries, was unique by virtue of the precise and measured staging of civic rituals, such as the procession marking the election of the doge and religious celebrations with an unavoidable political tone: all moments necessary for solidifying, in both the patrician and the plebeian classes, loyalty and a sense of belonging to the state.2 Over the course of the Enlightenment era, Venice witnessed an increase in solemn ceremonies and performances organized by the government to pay homage to visiting sovereigns and princes and to officially welcome foreign ambassadors: from bull hunts to concerts to the regatta, which constituted the “pyramid” of celebrations, being “one of the most joyful entertainments that the Public habitually offers to Foreign Princes.”3 We know about these sorts of public events not only from archival documents but also from visual records, thanks to talented painters such as Luca Carlevariis, Canaletto, and Francesco Guardi, who, through the genre of the documentary vista or reportorial view,4 captured historical and newsworthy moments, giving them a specific narration. The Republic paid for receptions that included entertainments provided by patricians in their palaces; while conceived as another manifestation of the wealth and power of an aristocratic state, in the eighteenth century these receptions became a vehicle for the exhibition of the resources, reputation, and image of the host family as well. The republican mediocritas of the Cinquecento, in fact, was supplanted by a growing desire to demonstrate the prominence of a family name, a phenomenon accompanied by a revolution in residential tastes, with the expansion of clearly defined spaces for entertainment, set aside for social life.5 Performances, concerts, and banquets in homage to illustrious guests constituted a natural corollary to these transformations. The Palazzo Foscarini in Venice and the Celebration Honoring the Dukes of Modena (1749) in a Getty Research Institute Manuscript