Gondola Days : Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle

by McCauley, Elizabeth Anne

• ISBN13: 9780914660217
• ISBN10: 0914660217
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-06-30
• Publisher: Isabella Stewart Gardner

Summary

At the end of the nineteenth century, a remarkable group of artists, writers and patrons gathered regularly at the Palazzo Barbaro in Venice, Italy. While Venice had long attracted wealthy tourists from across Europe and America, a particularly rich expatriate culture flourished at this time. In the 1880s, Daniel and Ariana Curtis of Boston purchased and restored the Palazzo Barbaro, where they lived in self-imposed exile. The Palazzo eventually became the center of a fascinating circle of American and English personalities living in Venice: the poet Robert Browning; Katharine de Kay Bronson of Newport, a writer greatly interested in local Venetian craft; Sir Austen Henry Layard, an archaelogist and an important collector of Renaissance paintings. Isabella and John Gardner, also of Boston, rented the Palazzo Barbaro every other year, beginning in 1884. A myriad of fascinating figures such as the painters John Singer Sargent, James McNeil Whistler and Claude Monet; the connoisseur Bernhard Bereson; writers Henry James, Paul Bourget, Vernon Lee, and a galaxy of socialites frequently joined this rich and culturally diverse group. As the Gardner Museum commemorates its centennial, Gondola Days accompanies an exhibition which will display the artistic products of this fascinating time and place. It will present this beloved Venetian palace as a source of inspiration for the Gardner, which, under Isabella's direction, became Boston's own Palazzo Barbaro: a Venetian gothic structure, with flowering gardens, full of paintings and objects, but also enlightened by working artists, poets and thinkers. This book explores the distinctive interaction of this small group of individuals, and their special connections with Venice. The exhibition will display paintings, watercolors, drawings, and sketchbooks, as well as photographs (many made by the visitors to the Palazzo), literary manuscripts, letters, albums, and other documents.

Author Biography

Elizabeth Anne McCauley, David H. McAlpin Professor of the History of Photography and Modern Art in the Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University Alan Chong, Curator of the Collection at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston Rosella Mamoli Zorzi, Professor of Anglo-American Literature at the Universita Ca'Foscari, Venice Richard Lingner, Assistant Curator of the Collection at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston Erica E. Hirshler, Croll Senior Curator of Paintings, Art of the Americas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Giovanna De Appolonia, a doctoral candidate at Boston University Marino Zorzi, director of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice, wrote La Libreria di San Marco (1987) and has published widely on Venetian books and libraries Helena Szepe, Associate Professor of Art History at the University of South Florida, Tampa, has written articles on the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and the role of books and manuscripts in the visual culture of the Renaissance

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Lenders to the Exhibition	ix
Introduction: ``Romance and art and history''	xi
Alan Chong
A Sentimental Traveler: Isabella Stewart Gardner in Venice	3	(50)
Elizabeth Anne McCauley
``A most singular, original and entertaining couple'': Daniel and Ariana Curtis in Boston and Venice	53	(34)
Richard Lingner
Artistic Life in Venice	87	(42)
Alan Chong
``Figures reflected in the clear lagoon'': Henry James, Daniel and Ariana Curtis, and Isabella Stewart Gardner	129	(26)
Rosella Mamoli Zorzi
John Singer Sargent's Fountain of Youth	155	(22)
Erica E. Hirshler
A Venetian Courtyard in Boston	177	(14)
Giovanna De Appolonia
The Palazzo Barbaro before the Curtises	191	(12)
Marino Zorzi
My Barbaro	203	(11)
Patricia Curtis Vigano
The Palazzo Barbaro Circle: Biographies	214	(59)
Checklist of Exhibited Works	273	(6)
Bibliography	279	(12)
Index	291