The Fondazione Querini Stampalia is a cultural structure in Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

, Italy, founded in 1869 at the behest of Conte Giovanni (Count John), the last descendant of the Venetian Querini Stampalia family.

Location

The site of the Foundation, located between St. Mark's Basilica and the Rialto Bridge

Rialto Bridge

The Rialto Bridge is one of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. It is the oldest bridge across the canal, and was the dividing line for the districts of San Marco and San Polo.- History :...

, includes the living quarters, an archive, a library, and a museum of paintings and furnishings (see Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia

Pinacoteca querini stampalia

The Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia is an art collection and museum in Venice, Italy. Situated in the sestieri of Castello, on the left bank of the Grand Canal, it includes famous paintings as a self- portrait and Adam and Eve by Palma the Younger, a Sacra Conversazione by Palma the Elder and a...

). Located just South of the Church of Santa Maria Formosa

Santa Maria Formosa

Santa Maria Formosa is a church in Venice, northern Italy. It was erected in 1492 under the design by Renaissance architect Mauro Codussi. It lies on the site of a former church dating from the 7th century, which, according to tradition, was one of the eight founded by San Magno, bishop of Oderzo...

 in the sestiere Castello

Castello

Castello is the Italian word for castle. The Latin word Castellum means reservoir, water tank.Castello may refer to:-Places:*Castello, Venice is the largest of the six sestieri of Venice...

, the Foundation is open to the public for academic research.

Collections

The museum has a substantial art collection, specially of masterpieces of Venetian Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 and Rococo

Rococo

Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...

, including paintings by Giovanni Bellini

Giovanni Bellini

Giovanni Bellini was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. His father was Jacopo Bellini, his brother was Gentile Bellini, and his brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna. He is considered to have revolutionized Venetian painting, moving it...

 (Presentation at the Temple) Pietro Longhi

Pietro Longhi

Pietro Longhi was a Venetian painter of contemporary scenes of life.-Biography:Pietro Longhi was born in Venice in the parish of Saint Maria, first child of the silversmith Alessandro Falca and his wife, Antonia. He adopted the Longhi last name when he began to paint...

, Giandomenico Tiepolo, Giulio Carpioni

Giulio Carpioni

Giulio Carpioni was an Italian painter and etcher of the early Baroque era.Born probably in Venice, Carpioni studied under Alessandro Varotari and was also influenced by the work of Simone Cantarini, Carlo Saraceni and Jean Leclerc. He came into contact with Lombard art after a brief visit to...

, Federico Cervelli

Federico Cervelli

Federico Cervelli was an Italian painter, born in Milan, who established his workshop in Venice at the age of about thirty. He initially trained with Pietro Ricci . His first documented and dated painting is a Sacrifice of Noah conserved at Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo...

, Matteo Ghidoni

Matteo Ghidoni

Matteo Ghidoni was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. Born in Florence, he was also known as Matteo dei Pitocchi, due to his dotty and flashy brushstrokes. He painted burlesque genre paintings, similar to those of Alessandro Magnasco. He died in Padua.-References:...

, Pietro

Pietro Longhi

Pietro Longhi was a Venetian painter of contemporary scenes of life.-Biography:Pietro Longhi was born in Venice in the parish of Saint Maria, first child of the silversmith Alessandro Falca and his wife, Antonia. He adopted the Longhi last name when he began to paint...

 and Alessandro Longhi

Alessandro Longhi

Alessandro Longhi was a Venetian portrait painter and printmaker in etching . He is known best for his oil portraits of Venetian nobles of state. His father was the famed genre painter Pietro Longhi. He trained under his father and Giuseppe Nogari...

, Pietro Muttoni, (also called della Vecchia), and Marco

Marco Ricci

Marco Ricci was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. He was the nephew of Sebastiano Ricci. After receiving his first instruction in art from his uncle, he visited Rome, where he was for some years occupied in drawing vedute....

 and Sebastiano Ricci

Sebastiano Ricci

Sebastiano Ricci was an Italian painter of the late Baroque school of Venice. About the same age as Piazzetta, and an elder contemporary of Tiepolo, he represents a late version of the vigorous and luminous Cortonesque style of grand manner fresco painting.-Early years:He was born in Belluno, son...

 among others. Particularly prized are the arcadian landscapes, genre

Genre painting

Genre works, also called genre scenes or genre views, are pictorial representations in any of various media that represent scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, and street scenes. Such representations may be realistic, imagined, or...

 scenes, and Longhi's series on the Seven Sacraments.

The museum also hosts some more modern works, including from the donation of the post-impressionist Venetian artist Eugenio Da Venezia

Eugenio Da Venezia

Eugenio Da Venezia was an Italian painter. He was a member of the group known as I Giovani di Palazzo Carminati . This group rejected the prevailing style of the Italian Academy at the beginning of the 20th century...

. As well as a collection of artworks, Da Venezia gave funds to be used to build a collection of twentieth century art representing Venice. There is also a collection of books and papers donated by the Venetian poet, Mario Stefani

Mario Stefani

Mario Stefani was an Italian poet....

.

Access

The Biblioteca della Fondazione Querini Stampalia, the Foundation Library, is open on Sundays, the only one of its kind in the city, from 10 AM to 7 PM. Count Giovanni, in his testament in 1868, wished to ensure that the Library was open even when other libraries in the city were closed.

Students may find the library uncomfortable during the summer because of the heat and lack of air conditioning (AC). Certain rooms include individual wall AC units and help to regulate the temperature to a certain degree. Wireless internet access for laptop users is available upon user identification due to Italian law.
The internet access is free only for some Online Public Access Catalogues, to browse the entire network you have to pay a small amount.

Carlo Scarpa

Architect Carlo Scarpa

Carlo Scarpa

Carlo Scarpa , was an Italian architect, influenced by the materials, landscape, and the history of Venetian culture, and Japan. Scarpa was also a glass and furniture designer of note....

designed interior, exterior, and garden elements and spaces on the ground floor of the historic building.

External links

• Official Fondazione Querini Stampalia website