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| George Loudon discusses his astonishing collection with curator Thierry Morel Photo: Cat Bauer |
Just when you think all hope is lost and humanity is doomed, you encounter another cluster of creatures of light right here in Venice. George Loudon said he loved being based in London because there were so many things to do. I said I loved being based in Venice because it is a town oozing with art and culture, and everyone who is interesting comes here. “Look where we are right now! Look what you’ve brought with you! How wonderful is that! Thank you so much!”
The George Loudon Collection is unlike anything you've seen before. It's displayed in the majestic piano nobile of Palazzo Grimani like a Darwinian art installation. Handcrafted teaching models -- papier-mâché flowers, taxidermy (there's a two-headed kitten), anatomical specimens, and much more -- are laid out as if they are precious artifacts. It's nature as a work of art.
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| Venetian Cabinet - courtesy of Galerie Kugel, Paris Photo: Cat Bauer |
And that's only half of the exhibition that awaits you at the top of the palace's monumental staircase. Sharing the space is "Mythical Rooms," a recreation of the "Cabinets of Curiosities" or "Wunderkammer" that flourished in the rooms of gentlemen-turned-curators in the 16th and 17th centuries. The space is brimming with rare antiquities, paintings, bronzes, furnishings, and other assorted masterpieces from private collections, galleries, and institutions.
Only human invention can blend these two distinct collections inside Palazzo Grimani to create a singular show like A Cabinet of Wonders: A Celebration of Art in Nature. The exhibition, curated by crackerjack French art historian Thierry Morel, pays tribute to the art of collecting. And Palazzo Grimani sets the scene with the perfect backdrop.
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| Domus Grimani - Sala della Tribuna inside Palazzo Grimani Photo: Venetian Heritage |
PALAZZO GRIMANI
Palazzo Grimani was home to some of the most ardent collectors in history. The palace was acquired by Antonio Grimani (1434-1523) in the late 15th century. Antonio would go on to become the 76th Doge of Venice, and the patriarch of a large and powerful family.
One of his grandsons, Giovanni Grimani (1506-1593), the influential Patriarch of Aquileia, enlarged Palazzo Grimani and created the impressive Sala della Tribuna to display the Grimani family's bountiful collection of antiquities. The palace was a Renaissance gem and a magnet for the world's greatest travelers, thinkers, and diplomats.
One of his grandsons, Giovanni Grimani (1506-1593), the influential Patriarch of Aquileia, enlarged Palazzo Grimani and created the impressive Sala della Tribuna to display the Grimani family's bountiful collection of antiquities. The palace was a Renaissance gem and a magnet for the world's greatest travelers, thinkers, and diplomats.
Palazzo Grimani was the Grimani family home until 1865. As the centuries drifted by and ownership changed hands, the palace slowly slipped into decay. The Italian state acquired the building in 1981 in "deplorable condition." It underwent years of extensive restoration and opened as a public museum in 2008, but there was not much left inside except the phantoms of the past. I wrote a detailed post about it in 2021:
A Brief History of Palazzo Grimani + Domus Grimani & The Room of the Doge
A Brief History of Palazzo Grimani + Domus Grimani & The Room of the Doge
After languishing for years, Palazzo Grimani was brought roaring back to life when Toto Bergamo Rossi, Director of Venetian Heritage, and Daniele Ferrara, Director of the Veneto Regional Directorate for National Museums, curated the stunning Domus Grimani exhibition in 2019. They hauled a load of the original Grimani loot out of the National Archeological Museum in Piazza San Marco and put it back inside Giovanni's Tribuna and the Sala del Doge in Palazzo Grimani where it belonged.
Palazzo Grimani is now part of the National Archaeological Museums of Venice and the Lagoon. The new autonomous institute also includes the National Archaeological Museum of Venice in Piazza San Marco, the Archaeological Park of Altino, and the Archaeological Museum on Lazzaretto Vecchio in the Venice lagoon. The world's first lazaretto, the former quarantine station will transform into the headquarters for the institute, all under the domain of the dynamic new director, Marianna Bressan.
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| A Cabinet of Wonders - Installation view Camerino di Callisto - Photo: Cat Bauer |
MYTHOLOGICAL ROOMS
A Cabinet of Wonders begins in the Sala di Psiche. It's designed to sweep you back to a Renaissance Wunderkammer with paintings, tapestries, sculptures, furniture, and other goodies typical of what you might have found in the Grimani family home.
Giovanni Grimani's private apartment was likely comprised of the Camerino di Callisto and the Camerino di Apollo. The Camerino di Callisto is laid out like a Renaissance scholar's study, as though Giovanni had just stepped out of the room. A never-before-exhibited painting, Christ in Glory, by Paolo Veronese hangs over the fireplace. Lush Rubelli fabrics give the room that lived-in Venetian palace feeling.
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| A Cabinet of Wonders - Camerino di Apollo - Installation View Photo: Massimo Listri |
Adding to the enchantment, the Camerino di Apollo is decorated with surreal prints by contemporary French artist Erik Desmazières. Weird and wonderful objects like a crocodile stuffed with sawdust are mounted directly onto the prints. It's disorienting and makes you wonder what century you've stumbled into.
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| Two-headed kitten, Preserved by G. F. Bushell, 216 Graham Road, HACKNEY George Loudon Collection Photo: Cat Bauer |
THE GEORGE LOUDON COLLECTION
The pièce de résistance of the entire experience is George Loudon's extraordinary collection of 19th-century life science objects.
Loudon has been a collector since childhood, inspired by a fascination with carpentry tools. He began collecting seriously in the late 1970s while working in the banking sector, focusing on young contemporary artists.
Loudon has been a collector since childhood, inspired by a fascination with carpentry tools. He began collecting seriously in the late 1970s while working in the banking sector, focusing on young contemporary artists.
In 2004, Louden visited Harvard where his daughter's husband was doing his PhD. His daughter took him to see the glass flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Louden was blown away by the glass flowers created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Dresden glass artist Leopold Blaschka and his son and apprentice, Rudolf Blaschka.
The Blaschkas had a thriving business making glass models of marine invertebrates before they turned to flowers. Harvard was a world center for the study of botany, but dried and pressed specimens were difficult to use as accurate teaching tools. The realistic glass botanical models crafted by the Blaschkas solved the problem.
According to Wikipedia: "Over the course of their collective lives, Leopold and Rudolf crafted as
many as ten thousand glass marine invertebrate models and 4,400
botanical models, the most famous being Harvard's Glass Flowers."
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| Pomegranates - George Louden Collection didactic models attributed to Francesco Garnier Valletti Late 19th-century - wax, pigments Photo: Matteo De Fina |
That started Louden out on his quest to collect teaching materials crafted by artisans in the 19th century. It took him several years to realize that he was gathering visual 19th-century science, which became the theme of his collection.
The hunt is part of the thrill. Louden finds didactic objects in flea markets and junk shops and the storage rooms of university museums. He's got boxes of Italian wax plants and fruit -- deformed lemons and peaches -- which were used at an agricultural college to teach students about imperfections in horticulture.
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| A Cabinet of Wonders - Installation View Photo: Massimo Listri |
Louden remembers where he found every object, and speaks with affection about each one. There are no labels or descriptions; you must examine each piece and let your imagination wander. The collection is a tribute to the artistry and ingenuity of the creators of the objects.
It took me some time to realize that I was seeing two separate chapters of the same exhibition. One section of The Cabinet of Wonders flows seamlessly into the other. Curator Thierry Moral sums it up: "These two sections, while distinct, mirror and engage with one another, creating a dialogue that invites reflection on the art and practice of collecting."
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| A Cabinet of Wonders - Installation View Photo: Massimo Listri |
Afterwards, I spoke to Toto Bergamo Rossi, the Director of Venetian Heritage and a mighty force behind much of the movement of art and culture in Venice, especially Palazzo Grimani. I told him I remembered how barren and empty Palazzo Grimani seemed when it first opened as a museum in 2008, and how exciting it was to see it filled with life again.
"I'm sure you have made Giovanni Grimani very happy," I said.
Toto smiled. "I speak to him every night."
A CABINET OF WONDERS. A Celebration of Art in Nature. The George Loudon Collection at Museo di Palazzo Grimani runs through May 11, 2025, and is curated by Thierry Morel. The exhibition is promoted by the Italian Minister of Culture, the Musei archeologici nazionali di Venezia e della Laguna, Musei Italiani, Venetian Heritage, and the Loudon Collection in collaboration with Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita di San Rocco. The main sponsor is Viking. Go to Venetian Heritage for more information in English.
Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer
