Anyone who has ever been to Venice has surely taken a vaporetto, a water taxi, or a gondola along the Grand Canal to get the first-row view of the beautiful palazzos adorning the Canal and the little winding alleys and canals on either side luring a tourist to explore the enchanting labyrinths of Venice. Yet what attracts tourists’ gazes the most on these Grand Canal trips are the heavily curtained or occasionally wide opened windows of these grand palazzos and the secrets kept behind them. We all peer into these windows hoping to catch a glimpse of Venetian splendor, magic, and “la dolce vita” that must surely accompany the centuries of richness and nobility.
Now there is finally a rare chance for the outsiders catch a glimpse of life behind the Venetian palazzos’ windows. Sotheby’s auction, the Splendour of Venice, that will be held in London on July 6, 2010, allows just such an opportunity by displaying and selling some of items that once adorned the interiors of Venice’s most beautiful palazzos during the heyday of the Venetian Republic.
64 articles comprising paintings, furniture and mirrors representing the best in Venetian painting and craftsmanship from the 17th and 18th centuries and collected over the years by a European family will be offered for sale in London. Carefully selected for their artistic and historical value, the pieces showcase the distinctive “Venetian style” formed in Venice under the influence of the city’s connections with the East and the West, as well as its unique feature of living on the water. As historian Roberto Valeriani eloquently puts it in his foreword to Sotheby’s catalogue for the auction, “Venetian style owes its distinctiveness to the gifted artisans of the city, but also to an innate sense of the luminous that brings precious materials to life. Anyone who has gazed on the frescoes, the furnishings and the plasterwork in the palaces along the Grand Canal knows that they are illuminated at certain times of day as light is reflected off the water into their interiors to create changeable, rippling effects.”
So if you can, go to London this summer and enjoy this unparalleled display of Venetian richness, splendor and superiority.
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