News & Stories

Historical Background

Following a transformative conservation treatment that lasted nearly nine months, the restored Nani Ceiling in the Ca’ Rezzonico Museum was revealed to the public earlier this month. Restoration was made possible thanks to generous funding from our Boston Chapter.

The Nani Ceiling today adorns the Brustolon Gallery of the Ca’ Rezzonico Museum in Venice, and is one of the few remaining Venetian examples of a decorative ceiling from the 18^th century. Originally constructed for the palazzo of the Nani family in the Cannaregio district of Venice, the ceiling was later moved to Ca’ Rezzonico in 1935 prior to the museum’s opening in 1936.

Conservation Campaign

Before our intervention, the Nani ceiling was in a precarious state. Many of the decorative carvings had come loose from their base support and museum officials would often find screws and nails on the gallery floor that had fallen from the ceiling. Dark water stains and flaking paint caused concern for larger underlying problems. In 2017 museum director Alberto Craievich contacted Save Venice with an appeal for the restoration. The Boston Chapter of Save Venice swiftly provided funding for the project and work began over the summer of 2018.

Conservator Stefania Sartori and her team began their campaign by meticulously analyzing and documenting each decorative element of the ceiling, before disassembling the entire structure, piece by piece. The wooden putti, grotesques, volutes, and frames were then carefully cleaned, revealing their original off-white color and ornate gilding. The background support of the ceiling was cleaned in-situ, revealing the original ash-blue color that had been covered over by thick layer of grey overpainting. Thankfully, only the re-painted layer suffered from the staining, and no leaks or infiltrations of water were discovered. The canvases underwent a conservative maintenance treatment before the entire ceiling was then carefully re-installed, complete with new support screws that will guarantee the long-term stability of the decorative elements.

During treatment, conservators discovered that above the decorative ceiling, there were structural problems with several of the 16^th century wooden support beams, original to the construction of Ca’ Rezzonico. These problems were quickly fixed by the public works office of the City of Venice, as Ca’ Rezzonico is under the regime of the local civic museums.

Conservation work was completed in March 2019 and the public inauguration of the restored ceiling was held on Thursday, April 11, 2019.Thanks to conservation treatment, we can now appreciate the original splendor and chromatic brilliance of this unique Baroque interior decoration.