serenissime trame

staged in the galleria giorgio franchetti alla ca’ d’oro from 23 may to 23 july 2017, the exhibition serenissime trame. carpets of the zaleski collection and paintings of the renaissance was the first presentation of the zaleski collection in a museum setting. the exhibition, hosted in the extraordinary late gothic venetian palazzo and devised by the museum pole of veneto and the fondazione tassara of brescia, wished to pay homage to the collector’s passion of giorgio franchetti, founder of the state museum of ca’ d’oro, who as a young man had focused his interest on carpets and had a passion for the decorative arts.

carpets, paintings and collecting have been the three themes proposed by the exhibition, which has had its focus around venice, the city that is a bridge to the east and a cradle of renaissance painting, which welcomes a set of metaphors into its sacred and profane iconography, standing out among which are also images of carpets, in tune with the society, culture and symbology of the age.

the twenty-six precious 15^th– and 16^th-century carpets on display represent some of the most appreciated types that arrived in venice along the trade routes from the east. alongside the carpets, six masterpieces of renaissance art, datable between the mid-15^th and mid-16^th centuries, by authors of importance such as vittore carpaccio, vincenzo foppa and dosso dossi, paintings in which it is possible to see the “patterns” of the carpets proposed in the exhibition. the works, chosen from within an area of cultural influence closely associated with the dominions of venice the serenissima, illustrate on canvas how the artefacts coming from the far east were used.

the exhibition route is completed by the video story (duration approximately 10 minutes) conceived and directed by wladimir zaleski – with music and soundscapes by pierangelo taboni and the voice of narrator luciano bertoli – in which it is a carpet itself that tells its own story from a special point of view.