Venice, 18th-century frescoes in Palazzo Badoer restored

Restorations have been completed in Venicein the two rooms on the first piano nobile of the Iuav University’s headquarters in Palazzo Badoer: this is the conservative restoration of two ceilings decorated with frescoes and stuccoes from the late 18th century, which follows the complete redevelopment, plant upgrading and energy efficiency of the premises concluded in March 2022. The frescoes decorating the rooms of Palazzo Badoer had undergone interventions that had partially altered their original colors.

The pictorial surfaces were compromised due to the accumulation of patinas over time (carbon black, particulates, dust) and water infiltration; the stucco surfaces had partly been covered by layers of scialbi (light layers of mortar or lime) that had changed their color from light blue to green; some sections of the overhanging decorations, capitals, and moldings had become detached and lost.

The restoration (carried out by the technical area of the Iuav University of Venice, head Ciro Palermo, director of works Caterina Gottardi, contractor Costruzione & Restauro di Giuseppe Tonini) was useful to remedy the problems manifested by the cycle and to restore the works to their legibility. After the preliminary diagnostic phase, by means of thermographic and endoscopic investigations, the consolidation of the detached parts and the cleaning of the surfaces were carried out; all the discontinuities (cracks, holes, gaps) were evened out and filled in by plastering, and finally the chromatic accompaniment of the plastering and the pictorial retouching of the painted surfaces were carried out. Now the frescoes on the main floor are finally legible at their best.

The two rooms, one called the Diana or Juno room and the other called the Arts room, are adjoining, and their decorations were most likely made during a modernization of the rooms at a wedding celebration. The exquisite ceiling decoration of the alcove in Diana’s room, enclosed in an oval frame finely decorated with colored flowers and leaves in overhanging paste, recalls the representation of Marital Concord: a young couple is depicted, accompanied by Hymenaeus holding a torch in the presence of Cupid; bow and turquoise are at the feet of the young man, who holds a cloth with two hearts, while the maiden holds a nest of swallows in her hands. In the second room, in the center of the four sides of the ceiling, within projecting molded frames, are fresco monochromes representing allegories of the arts, painting, sculpture, literature and music. Arranged in the four corners are two stucco griffins holding a garland and an eagle with a shell.

As for a possible attribution, “the realization, both of the stucco and the fresco,” explains restorer Giuseppe Tonini, “could be compared with ceilings made in the same period by painters such as Costantino Cedini, Fabio Canal and Giovanni Scajaro and stucco artists such as V. Colomba, V. Colonna and F. Castelli, found in other palaces in Venice: for example, Cà Corner della Regina, Cà Contarini in Santa Maria Zobenigo (Santa Maria del Giglio), Cà Garzoni in Sant’Angelo, Cà Zorzi, Casa Musatti in Santa Maria Zobenigo and finally Cà Badoer at S. Apostoli.”

Palazzo Badoer, the seat of higher education at the Iuav University of Venice, houses the Doctoral School, the School of Specialization in Architectural and Landscape Heritage, Master’s degrees and the ClassicA study center. The building, documented since 1350, was originally the “house of the priory of San Giovanni Evangelista,” belonging to the Badoer family. Various interventions followed, documented to 1712, until the current building situation. In 1974 Iuav purchased the palace and in 1978 began the works of extraordinary maintenance and functional adaptation as the seat of the Department of History of Architecture. New restoration, upgrading and energy efficiency works were completed in March 2022 with the inauguration of four new classrooms capable of accommodating a total of 110 students.

The garden of Palazzo Badoer, in which is located a small theater where readings and summer events are held, was dedicated to the young researcher Valeria Solesin.

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Venice, 18th-century frescoes in Palazzo Badoer restored

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