Conservation funded by the Boston Chapter of Save Venice, Inc.

The Nani Ceiling that now adorns the Brustolon Gallery room of the Ca’ Rezzonico Museum in Venice, is one of the very few Venetian examples of an integral decorative ceiling from the 18th century. Originally constructed for the palazzo of the Nani family in the Cannaregio district of Venice, the ceiling is an animated decorative structure composed of light-colored curled carvings and volutes and gilded arabesques over an ash-blue background that frame eleven canvas paintings by Francesco Maffei (1606-1660) depicting the Divinity of Olympus, and four roundel canvases by Francesco Polazzo (1683-1753) depicting The Parts of the World, located in the corners of the ceiling.

The lively ornamental structure attempts to update the previous seventeenth-century taste for typical decorative wooden ceilings inspired by the models in Palazzo Ducale, which saw the use of canvas paintings adorned by exuberant decorative motifs. This stylistic compromise between the ancient and modern would soon be supplanted by fresco and ornamental stucco decoration seen in most Venetian palaces of the eighteenth century. The Nani ceiling is, therefore, a rare, if not unique, testament to an alternative typology of the current taste, and stands out for its refined quality of carving and originality of the ornamental design.

The ceiling was moved to Ca’ Rezzonico in 1935 before it was opened as the Museum of the Eighteenth Century in 1936.

Before conservation began in 2018, 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 about 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 a 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 reinstalled, 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 sixteenth-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.

For select projects, conservation dossiers in Italian containing limited textual and photographic documentation may be available for consultation by appointment at the Venice office of Save Venice and the Rosand Library & Study Center. For inquiries, please contact us at venice@savevenice.org.

Ca’ Rezzonico Museum: Homepage

Ca’ Rezzonico Museum: The Brustolon Room