Complete Visit Itinerary - Palazzo Fulcis

Museo: MUBEL - Musei Civici di Belluno - Palazzo Fulcis

01. Lapidary

The first point of interest focuses on the Lapidary.

The most congenial starting point for our journey inside Palazzo Fulcis can only be the Lapidary, where the testimonies of the history and cultural roots of the city help us imagine in what reality this same building saw the light and underwent all its transformations. We are thus faced with a heterogeneous series of testimonies, coming in particular from the city of Belluno and, to a lesser extent, from its territory: on the surface of these stone fragments, worn by the centuries, we can trace the history of Belluno through the coats of arms of the oldest families of the city's nobility (the Campana, Rudio, and Crepadoni families...) or of the rectors who, starting from the 15th century, governed the city on behalf of the Republic of Venice. The power of the Serenissima also asserted itself over Belluno, as was the case for all subjugated cities, through the characteristic winged lion. Here you can find three specimens, all represented "in moleca," with wings resembling crab claws. Of these lions, the oldest dates back to the early 15th century, while the most recent can be attributed to the treaty of Rovereto in 1752, when Doge Francesco Loredan and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria defined the borders between the two states in the Cadore area. Inscriptions dedicated to the Venetian podestà were once displayed on the facades of public buildings, and here we can observe some examples dating from the 16th to 18th centuries, of considerable historical value. Among these, special attention deserves the inscription in honor of Alvise Trevisan (1529), commissioned by the people of Belluno to thank the rector for his actions during a period marked by severe famine and plague. Notice how the coat of arms of the patrician is accompanied by that of the city of Belluno, with the two opposing dragons and, once again, the lion of Venice, sculpted following the fall of the Republic in 1797: each symbol carved on these stones has a story to tell us. Instead, precious testimonies of a Belluno that no longer exists are the foundation inscriptions of the churches of Santa Giustina in Castello (1297) and Santa Maria Nuova (1326), suppressed during the Napoleonic era and demolished in 1808 and 1920, respectively. Capitals, frames, and a multitude of architectural ornaments from public spaces and monuments (such as the fountain basin with the coat of arms of the rector Girolamo Zeno, or the ornate vegetal bracket from the Palazzo dei Rettori) also evoke, albeit fragmentarily, the face of the city through the centuries. Having paid due homage to the history of Belluno, now make your way to the first floor of the Palace and immerse yourself in its 18th-century decoration: it was during this period that the palace reached its peak splendor and donned the attire that we can still admire today.

Room 1: Birth of a museum. The Giampiccoli art gallery

The second point of interest discusses the establishment of the Giampiccoli museum and art gallery.

Have you found the first exhibition room? Let's start with the ceiling. Like every other wall in the Palace, this too retains its original eighteenth-century decorations, recently restored to their ancient splendor thanks to the painstaking care of restorers. If you look closely, however, you can see in the center the coats of arms of the Fulcis and Migazzi de Waal families, evidence of the marriage celebrated in 1776 between Guglielmo Fulcis, son of Pietro Knight of Malta, and Francesca Migazzi de Waal, on the occasion of which the Palace underwent its major transformation. If you then lower your gaze and turn it to the left, you will come across some of the most significant works in the museum's art gallery, the two Madonnas with Child painted at the end of the 15th century by the Vicentine painter Bartolomeo Montagna. Are you surprised to come across a Vicentine artist? Well, Bartolomeo Montagna's art went far beyond the local reality, as he developed a style that combined influences from the entire Venetian territory and beyond. This painter represents one of the most important channels for the spread of the Renaissance language of Giovanni Bellini and Antonello da Messina in the Veneto mainland, adding a particular predisposition for complex perspective solutions, perhaps influenced by contact with Lombard and Donato Bramante's art, already well known in Veneto. If you carefully observe the works of this master, you can appreciate all this in the marble balustrade, in the spatial depth of the image, revealed by the outstretched hand of the Virgin, in the sharpness of the volumes and lights. As you move away from these late 15th-century masterpieces, behind you await two other panels, dated instead to the early 16th century. On one side you can observe a work by Giannicola di Paolo, closely linked to Perugino's art; on the other, an example by an anonymous Cremonese artist, close to the language of Tommaso Aleni known as il Fadino. The paintings surrounding you in this first room represent the heart of the museum's art gallery, namely the core of paintings belonging to the Belluno doctor Antonio Giampiccoli and donated to the city by him in 1872. Along with the collection of Tomaso Antonio Catullo and the bronzes from the collection of Florio Miari, the Giampiccoli art gallery constitutes the oldest foundation on which the museum was established: it owes the beginning of its history to these donations.

Room 03: Room 2: Simone from Cusighe. The International Gothic in the Dolomites.

The third point of interest will be about International Gothic in the Dolomites.

And now let's delve into the true history of Bellunese art. The second room is dedicated to its first ancestor, to the one who ideally marks the beginning of this story: Simone da Cusighe. Very little is known about this representative of the International Gothic: the only securely dated work is a polyptych made for the main altar of the church of Col di Salce, now preserved in the Ca' d'Oro museum in Venice. To your right and to your left are a fake polyptych representing Saint Anthony the Abbot among the saints Giovatà, Gottardo, Bartholomew, and Anthony of Padua, and two panels belonging to a dismembered polyptych representing Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint John the Baptist. If you let your gaze wander over the individual details of these fourteenth-century panels, you can fully grasp the forms of a language that, although it may appear naive today, represented an important artistic update in Belluno almost seven hundred years ago. The Emilian language spread in the Veneto region around the mid-14th century, by Tommaso da Modena, seems to be part of our Simone's culture, as well as some references to the Venetian and even Paduan culture of the 14th century, a culture that you can recognize in the somewhat empirical perspective with which the throne of Saint Anthony is constructed. If you look at the Saint Bartholomew of the polyptych and Saint Catherine, you will notice arched and slender forms, with characteristic falcon-winged drapery, which refer to the culture of the International Gothic, to which Simone, with some traces of naivety, also approached. These are elements that can also be found in the sculptural production of the city of Belluno in the 15th century: the three small sculptures present in this room were in fact created to decorate the three main fountains of the city, which is why time has visibly left its marks on their surface. Saint Giovatà was born to surmount the fountain in Piazza Duomo, Saint Lucano that of Piazza Mercato, and Saint Helena that near the church of Santa Croce.

Room 3: The Walk. Palace of the Ancient Community of Belluno

The fourth point of interest is dedicated to the Palace of the Ancient Community of Belluno.

On April 5, 1476, Lorenzo Valier, the rector of the city of Belluno, which had been part of the territories of the Venetian Republic since 1404, presented to the city council the model for the construction of a new palace on the western side of the current Piazza Duomo. The Palazzo dell'Antica Comunità di Belluno represented the heart of the city's civil institutions and the designated seat for council meetings until the fall of the Most Serene Republic in 1797. The fragmentary twisted and vegetal motif frame that you can see within the case in the center of this room is one of the numerous architectural and decorative elements that characterized its facade. In the main hall of the imposing building, it was soon decided to create a decoration that was almost unique in the Veneto region, in terms of subject matter: a cycle of frescoes that implicitly alluded to the Roman heritage to which Belluno identified. And so, around 1489, the painter Iacopo Parisati da Montagnana, still influenced by the art of Andrea Mantegna, frescoed in the Council Chamber - also known as the "Caminata" due to the presence of a fireplace - some episodes and examples of ancient history virtues mainly taken from the accounts of Livy, such as the Combat of the Horatii and the Curiatii, the Triumphal Entry of the victorious Horatius, the Meeting of Horatius with his sister and her subsequent killing, the Mistake of Mucius Scaevola, Mucius Scaevola burning his hand, fragments of which you can follow with your eyes applied to faithful reconstructions of the whole, now lost. The particular commission may have been influenced by the Bishop of Padua, Pietro Barozzi, elected in 1487 but hailing from the Bellunese see, a figure who may have suggested to his former community the use of the best artist active in his new diocese. This cycle represented an early example of civil celebration that does not refer to events from the city's past, but to examples of ancient virtues. Other fragments that you can admire here in all their chromatic harmony belong to a second cycle of frescoes, relating to episodes of Roman history (Titus Manlius Torquatus condemning his son Silanus, the Trial of the Vestal Tuccia, and the Conspiracy of Catiline). This cycle adorned the notaries' hall and was executed in 1529 by Pomponio Amalteo (1505-1588). By observing and comparing the styles of the works of the two painters, you can easily understand the great transformations undergone by Venetian art at the turn of the two centuries: on the one hand, the antiquarian art of Mantegnesque origin by Jacopo, and on the other, that of Pomponio, already updated to the 'tonal' painting of Giorgione, Titian, and Pordenone. You may be wondering how it was possible to reconstruct the layout of these great frescoes when only a few isolated fragments remained: well, we must thank the foresight and intelligence of two Bellunese gentlemen from the nineteenth century. Before the destruction of the Palazzo and the masterpieces that adorned it, the works were faithfully reproduced by the engraver Melchiorre Toller (1800-1846) and the painter Ippolito Caffi (1809-1866), making the restoration and reassembly of the fragments that have survived to this day possible.

05. Room 4. Matteo Cesa. Painting and sculpture in Belluno between the late fifteenth century and the early sixteenth century.

This fifth point of interest focuses on the artist Matteo Cesa.

The fourth room is dedicated to the spokesperson of Belluno painting and sculpture between the late 15th and early 16th centuries, an artist who perfectly embodies the versatility of local artists in the Renaissance period: Matteo Cesa. He was capable of expressing himself with originality both in painting and in wood sculpture, two areas in which he clearly demonstrates how carefully he kept up to date with the production of the Vivarini in Venice, as well as with Paduan models linked to the teaching of Andrea Mantegna: characteristics that you can easily discover in the triptych displayed here, signed "OPVS MATEI". Particularly rich and decorated is the wooden frame of the triptych, dated between 1480 and 1490, before the master fully embraced the innovations proposed by the Vivarini, but in time for the Mantegnesque language of Jacopo and the early Giovanni Bellini to be assimilated. The sculpture with the Madonna and Child on the left is instead a valuable testimony to Cesa's activity as a sculptor, which presents many similarities with the Madonna present in the Cesa-Pagani chapel of the nearby Church of Santo Stefano.

Room 06: The Sixteenth Century. From the legacy of the Vecellio family to Domenico Tintoretto.

This sixth point of interest is dedicated to the sixteenth century.

The fifth room of the visit path is dedicated to the Sixteenth Century, a century that in Belluno followed its course in the wake of the Vecellio heritage. You are in one of the widest rooms of the noble floor of the Palace, characterized by the fireplace enriched with stuccoes, mirrors, and a decorated fire screen, with the coat of arms of the De Bertoldi family, owners of the palace in the nineteenth century. Furthermore, if during your walk through the first rooms of the museum, you paid attention to the Venetian terrazzo floor that you can admire here extensively, you will have noticed the different decorative motifs that characterize it in each room. These precious floors have been one of the most important discoveries made during the recent restoration of the building. But now, let's turn our gaze to the walls of the room. Let's start by taking stock of the situation: we are in the midst of the sixteenth century, and what we can observe from the artistic languages present in this period in the Belluno area is first and foremost the influence of the workshop of the great protagonist of the Sixteenth Century, Tiziano Vecellio, born in Pieve di Cadore between 1488 and 1490. The Portrait of Pierio Valeriano, one of the most important humanists of the century, author of a volume entitled Hieroglyphica in which Egyptian hieroglyphs were interpreted in a wise key, belongs to the Vecellio ambit. Nicolò De Stefani, probable author of the panel with the Madonna and Child and saints, a painter very active for the churches of the territory, intersects Tiziano's lesson with that, more mannerist, of Paris Bordon. A highly successful artist in Venice like Bernardino Licinio then adds to the Titianesque suggestions the knowledge of the art of Palma il Vecchio, as can be seen from the language used in the Woman Combing Her Hair exhibited here. At the end of the century, the city of Belluno received an important gift of large canvases: for the church of Santa Croce, suppressed in 1806 and subsequently demolished, a cycle of 10 episodes of the Passion of Christ was created by important Venetian painters of the time, including l'Aliense, Carlo Caliari, Palma il Giovane, Andrea Vicentino, Paolo Fiammingo, and Domenico Tintoretto (1560-1635). In front of you stands the painting by the latter, in which you see Christ before Pilate and can easily perceive the debt he shows towards the art of his father and master, Jacopo Tintoretto: a certain note of theatricality in the poses and gestures, the rendering of the figures, some of which are captured in dynamic twists, certain luministic emphases. This series of canvases probably constituted the most ambitious pictorial example of Counter-Reformation style in the Venetian mainland in the late Sixteenth Century. It was created by the will of Bishop Giovanni Battista Valier (1575-96), with the intention of making it an effective iconographic and doctrinal support for this new institute, dedicated to teaching the principles of Catholic reform.

Room 07: Counter-Reformation Painting in the Belluno Area

This seventh point of interest is dedicated to painting during the Counter-Reformation period.

Within the sixth room of our exhibition, we find some examples of Bellunese painting from the Counter-Reformation period. During this particular era, art, alongside devotion, undergoes a profound transformation in subjects and iconographic prescriptions: the theme of the Passion, meditation on the sufferings of Christ is emphasized; austere and composed forms are favored. This is the atmosphere that surrounds you. A significant presence towards the end of the sixteenth century was, in particular, that of Jacopo Bassano, the author around 1570 of the Martyrdom of St. Lawrence for the Cathedral of Belluno and documented here by a work from the workshop, which takes up a successful prototype of the master. Another protagonist of the transition phase between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is certainly Jacopo Negretti, known as Palma the Younger, a renowned direct pupil of Titian, also the author of an altarpiece for the Belluno Cathedral. The Lamentation over the Dead Christ that you can admire here is an excellent example of his religious art, characterized, however, by a rich pictorial material that already foreshadows the Baroque age and slightly lightens the gravity of the aforementioned themes. Between Belluno and Feltre, a master was very active in this era, particularly of great expressive rigor, a genuine interpreter of a timeless Counter-Reformation 'painting'. This is Francesco Frigimelica, the author of the altarpiece The Piety and Rector Vittore Correr that you can observe to your right: a perfect example of an austere style imbued with a pathetic devotion.

Room 8: Cabinets of art and erudition. The Renaissance plaques and bronzes by Florio Miari.

This eighth point of interest is dedicated to the art and erudition cabinets.

What exactly were the art cabinets and erudition of the Renaissance? In fifteenth-century Italy, a renewed interest in antiquity favored the emergence of a new erudition, informed by humanistic values and characterized by a novel understanding of the artistic value of ancient artifacts. Thus, in the homes of scholars and noblemen, in the palaces of the aristocracy and the wealthy bourgeoisie, the studiolo began to appear, a small private room reserved for the collection of books and art objects. Within these small enclosed spaces, shielded by their precious contents, princes and men of letters would retreat to study and reflect on ancient art as well as that of their time. So, what were the art objects that were accumulated here? They were small bronzes, plaques, medals, and any similar type of small object that could be held and turned in the hands during study or moments of leisure. The collection of Renaissance bronzes and plaques preserved at Palazzo Fulcis comes entirely from the collection of Count Florio Miari, which arrived at the Civic Museum of Belluno in 1872 thanks to the donation by his son Carlo. The Miari collection is particularly significant as, despite being an important testimony of Belluno's collecting, it preserves pieces that are representative of a broader Italian production dating between the 1400s and the 1500s. At that time, among the objects for study and display, bronzes and plaques enjoyed a particular collecting fortune. The term "plaquette" refers to small reliefs, generally in bronze, decorated on one side only, created to transmit a model to be replicated (a glyptic work, a gem, a cameo) or sometimes inspired by famous precedents. This is the case, for example, of the designs by Michelangelo used by Giovanni Bernardi (1494-1553), of which there is evidence in an example displayed here with the Fall of Phaeton. The Miari collection includes some examples of plaquettes executed by the best artists skilled in carving and bronze casting. One of these, depicting the Madonna and Child, is attributed to Donatello's workshop, active in Padua from 1443 to 1453, a reality that left a lasting trace of its passage. In other examples, you can see representations of the creations of the Vicenza goldsmith Valerio Belli (1468-1546), Galeazzo Mondella (1467-1528) known as il Moderno, and Andrea Briosco (1470-1532) known as il Riccio. This last artist, also known by the pseudonym Ulocrino (a playful onomastic that means "curly hair"!), worked mainly in Padua, where he produced a large quantity of small bronze sculptures with classical subject matter, according to the prevailing fashion of the time. Among the bronzes, favorite objects of Renaissance collecting, the masterfully cast figures of the group with Adam and Eve stand out in the center of this room, attributed to Nicolò Roccatagliata (around 1570-post 1636), and the unique piece representing a Devil ascribable to the circle of Agostino Zoppo (1520-1565). In the narrow humanistic and Renaissance literary circle, collecting of medals also gained importance. Due to their small size and portability, the ability to combine words and images, they were naturally inclined to ensure the durability of fame among an educated circle. In this collecting field, a fundamental role was played by Pisanello, the true creator of the genre, the one who made the Renaissance profile portrait canonical, of which a very representative example is that of the humanist and educator Vittorino da Feltre. Later medals of some of the most famous scholars of their time still refer to those models, both originating from the Belluno area but active at the most important Renaissance courts in Italy: Urbano Dalle Fosse (known as Bolzanio), tutor of Giovanni de' Medici in Florence, future Leo X, and his nephew Pierio Valeriano, the author of the volume titled Hieroglyphica (1556) whom we encountered just a few steps ago, portrayed next to his work.

Room 9: The Monte di Pietà of Belluno. The coffer

The ninth point of interest is dedicated to an almost pirate-like chest.

We are not in the middle of a film set with a vague pirate flavor, but in front of the sixteenth-century chest of the Monte di Pietà of Belluno. This institution was founded in 1501 and fulfilled the function, felt in many parts of Italy, of removing the money lending activity from the usurers. Bernardino da Feltre played a fundamental role in promoting the birth of this form of popular financing. According to the tradition of Belluno, the Monte di Pietà of this city was designed by Friar Elia da Brescia, of the Order of the Servants of Mary. The building, inaugurated in 1531, was located in Piazza del Mercato. The Civic Museum of Belluno preserves many works originally belonging to this building: the lunette with the Deposition of Christ by Agostino Ridolfi, the Ex-Voto by Giovanni Delaito, The Pieta and the Rector Vittore Correr by Francesco Frigimelica. However, among all, a place of honor is certainly occupied by the massive chest that you are facing, inviolable in its centuries-old solidity and still accompanied by the bronze weights of the Venetian Republic.

Room 9: Drawings and Prints

This tenth point of interest is dedicated to the area of prints and drawings.

The collection of the Civic Museum of Belluno also includes a significant graphic collection, with drawings largely coming from the 1906 donation by the Bellunese count Francesco Agosti. Among these sheets, in addition to the exceptional album of drawings by Andrea Brustolon, many were created by artists from Belluno, from the seventeenth century up to the twentieth century. A particularly rich nucleus is that of the eighteenth-century drawings, of which you can see some examples in this room. In addition to artists like Gaspare Diziani and Francesco Fontebasso, both linked to the workshop of Sebastiano Ricci, emerge figures probably less known but of great interest, such as Antonio de’ Bittio, a unique painter, fresco artist, and portraitist, also active in England for Count Frederick Augustus Hervey at Ickworth House, and Paolo de’ Filippi, capable of continuing the landscape painting renewed by Marco Ricci. The drawings of other important masters from the nineteenth century date back, in addition to the well-known neoclassical decorators Giovanni Demin and Pietro Paoletti, such as the portraitist Antonio Tessari and the great protagonist of Italian landscape of that century, Ippolito Caffi. Also of great importance is the collection of prints kept at Palazzo Fulcis, of which samples will be exhibited in this room on a rotating basis. This collection includes in particular the precious collection collected by Luigi and Alberto Alpago-Novello and donated to the Civic Museum of Belluno in 1994 by Luisa, Adriano, and Arpalice Alpago-Novello. This important and targeted collection includes more than fourteen hundred sheets, most of which were created by artists from Belluno. Therefore, you must imagine a profusion of works by Giovanni Battista Brustolon, Antonio Baratti, Pietro Monaco, Giuliano Giampiccoli, Marco Ricci, Joseph Wagner: in short, some of the most important engravers active in Venice in the eighteenth century, often natives of Belluno, a city that boasts an important tradition of masters active in printmaking.

Room 10: Jewels of the Prosdocimi Bozzoli Collection

In the eleventh point of interest, you can see the Prosdocimi Bozzoli jewelry collection.

You are now in a very bright and oddly shaped environment. Once, this space was open and overlooked the courtyard of the Palace. Today, a simple glass panel has allowed it to be used to enhance and emphasize the shapes of the jewelry from the Prosdocimi Bozzoli collection, of which you are admiring a selection donated to the Civic Museum of Belluno in 1983. Starting from the 1950s, Rosetta Prosdocimi Bozzoli began a remarkable collection of popular jewelry from Belluno, at a time when they began to gradually disappear from use, with the aim of saving traditional popular culture and a feminine identity at risk of disappearing from oblivion. If you take a few seconds to carefully observe these small objects, often made in precious silver filigree, you will be amazed by the technical skill that brought them to life. Observe the "tremoli," those hairpins ending with silver flowers, supported by spiral springs that sway with every movement of the head; the "San Marco hairpins," simple or double; the "guselle," simple hairpins to be arranged radially in a bun; the coral necklaces, the ear cuffs, rings, pendants with more explicit symbolism, such as heart-shaped ones, expressing marital and romantic fidelity, or stars. Alongside these light and imaginative small objects, you can see something completely different: these carved wooden supports, on which you may have recognized the negative of some images, are examples of woodcut matrices. You should know that the Civic Museum of Belluno houses around 560 wooden matrices, which arrived here in March 1896 from the Belluno typography Tissi. This workshop has been active since the mid-18th century and probably collected and preserved older workshop funds over time, perhaps from the 16th century, used in other Belluno or nearby territories. It was started by Simone Tissi, who trained under the well-known engraver Giuliano Giampiccoli, and played an important role in establishing lasting relationships between Belluno and the Remondini typography of Bassano del Grappa, where Simone also completed an internship. Its first printed edition dates back to 1751. At some point, Antonio Persicini, a native of Belluno, also joined the workshop.

Room 11: The Alcove. The Fulcis, Knights of Malta.

The twelfth point of interest is dedicated to the master bedroom.

If you continue by entering the small room adjacent to the print and drawing room, you will find yourself in the alcove of the palace: the master's bedroom. Starting from 1702, when the young Pietro Fulcis obtained the coveted title of Knight of Malta, the characteristic cross of the Maltese Order became an essential element in the decoration of the various spaces of his city palace: it is also displayed here, in the most intimate and private area of the building. Here too, the wall decorations refer to the occasion of this important recognition, with the presence, both in the stucco decoration and in the painted ceiling, of the Maltese cross overlapping the eagle of the Fulcis family crest. It is likely that the alcove was arranged not long after the decoration of the small room where Sebastiano Ricci's canvases were placed; as in that case, the plasterer responsible for the striking plastic decoration on the walls shows a close affinity with the style of Bortolo Cabianca: two allegorical figures, perhaps representing the parts of the Day, that is Day and Night, or Dawn and Dusk, hold volute elements that, forming a double opposing S, create a sort of theatrical scene that leads into the interior of the alcove. You should imagine an original appearance characterized by gold and ivory tones, something that finds a direct comparison with similar Venetian creations from the early 18th century: a further confirmation of the Fulcis family's updated taste. The size of the environment, all in all contained, has led some to suggest that it may have preceded a matrimonial use and that it was conceived before Pietro Fulcis got married: thus, the helmet and all the other military references present in the decoration would seem decidedly less inappropriate, elements that are not very conducive to the tenderness of marital intimacy.

13. Room 12: The Zambelli Collection. The Eighteenth Century Porcelains

The thirteenth point of interest focuses on the Zambello collection with numerous eighteenth-century porcelain pieces.

The pieces you see exhibited in this room were donated to the Belluno Museum in January 1994 by Professor Enrico Zambelli, by his and his late wife Luciana Perale's will. The Zambelli collection includes numerous objects such as furniture, tapestries, carpets, and porcelain, along with prints, drawings, photographs, paintings, glass, and more. Of particular interest is the furniture: among the most significant pieces from the 18th century, you can admire a carob wood bureau, Venetian manufacture, and a rare walnut root desk, from the Emilian production of the first half of the century. Dated around 1750 is the painted wooden door with pastoral scenes and mixed frames, of Venetian origin. The paintings on the walls are Venetian school and are dated between the 17th and 18th centuries. The excellence of the room, however, lies in the substantial collection of porcelain, which surely caught your attention immediately. Perhaps you will find it hard to believe, but within those few square meters of display case, the production of all the main Italian and European manufacturers starting from the 18th century is represented, along with some specimens from China and Japan! A brief overview of the history of porcelain production can help you appreciate these delicate masterpieces even more. Among the Italian manufacturers, those located in Venice were particularly noteworthy. The oldest was Giovanni Vezzi's, active between 1720 and 1727, of which the museum owns a rare cup with floral decoration and relief motifs (showcase 1, no. 1). It was followed by the one founded in 1761 by the Saxon refugee Nathaniel Friedrich Hewelcke, from which comes a small teapot with a spheroidal body and floral motifs (showcase 1, no. 54), inspired by Chinese models. The peak of Venetian production, however, coincided with the arrival in the city of the Modenese entrepreneur Geminiano Cozzi. Active between 1765 and 1812, his manufacture stood out for its prolificacy and the variety of motifs adopted (Chinoiserie, landscapes, figurative compositions, floral, and geometric). There are also numerous single and group statuettes. Among those owned by the museum, a polychrome statuette depicting an oriental maiden, also known as pagò (from the Venetian pagoda, Chinese deity - showcase 1, no. 4), stands out. The main rival of the Cozzi enterprise was the one started in 1762 by Giovanni Battista Antonibon based in Nove (Vicenza). Characterized by excellent artistic quality and materials, the figurative repertoire sometimes coincides with that of the rival, as shown for instance by the chain and ponticello motifs, common to both factories (showcase 1, for example: no. 11, 25). Among the European ones, it is necessary to mention the French (a precious milk jug made in Sèvres with golden friezes and a bird, signed and dated 1773 - showcase 3, no. 25), Austrian, and German productions. It was in Germany that the first large-scale European porcelain manufacture was born: located in Meissen (Dresden), it began its production in 1710 and immediately favored oriental motifs, naturalistic scenes, and landscapes, as evidenced by the specimens exhibited here (showcase 3, no. 1-17, 19).

14. The Hall of Palazzo Fulcis

The fourteenth point of interest is dedicated to the hall of Palazzo Fulcis.

You are in the heart of the Palace, the magnificent double-height hall, the result of the extension designed by the architect Valentino Alpago-Novello on the occasion of the wedding celebrated in 1776 between Guglielmo Fulcis and Francesca Migazzi de Waal. Be careful not to bump into one of the three majestic Baroque consoles that adorn this room! They are part of the original furnishings of the Palace and were made by craftsmen from Belluno, a precious legacy of the great local carving tradition. Instead, you can try to admire yourself in the mirror. And before moving away from the mirror, take a moment to notice the presence of the Fulcis family crest and the Maltese Cross: these are the elements that have allowed dating these furnishings after 1702, the year in which Guglielmo's father, Pietro Fulcis, obtained the title of Knight of the Order of Malta, an event that was celebrated with important decorative interventions inside the Palace, such as the stuccoes in the alcove and the Hercules Chamber and the commission to Sebastiano Ricci of the paintings that would soon adorn it. You may have already been captivated by the delicate monochrome and stucco decoration of the ceiling and the upper part of the walls: an example of elegance without excess. The allegorical paintings that overlook you, on the ceiling and on the upper part of three of the four walls, were created by one of the most popular fresco painters of the second half of the 18th century: Costantino Cedini. Let's start from the top. Yes, up there, above your head, where the heaviness of the brick has given way to the lightness of the clouds. Virtue is crowning Valor, do you see? And if you persist a few more minutes in this uncomfortable position, you will be able to recognize within the splendid allegory all the figures that inhabit it: Valor, seated in his pride next to a statue-like lion, Virtue, generously towering over him with a crown in her hands, the Three Theological Virtues, up high, almost getting lost against the clear sky, and finally below, on the left, so close as to be almost tangible, Mercury, Mars, and Hercules. When you are tired of clouds and want to lower your gaze, you can then have fun recognizing which of the allegorical figures painted on the walls represents Merit, which Fortune, and which War. Unfortunately, the canvases, likely by the same Cedini, that decorated the lower part of the walls are lost, and only the framing is still preserved: time, with its passing, leaves us as many precious gifts as it takes away with it.

Room 13: Paintings from the Baroque period.

The fifteenth point of interest focuses on some paintings from the Baroque period.

This room offers a small taste of what the taste of a seventeenth-century collection was supposed to be: the Baroque era indeed marks the birth of the collection in the modern sense of the term, an environment where ancient paintings and family heritage began to coexist with new commissions, of different subjects and genres. These include portraits, works of biblical subject, genre scenes, and still lifes, of which you can admire some interesting examples in this room. Inside the Giampiccoli Picture Gallery, a collection that constitutes the original nucleus of the civic collections of Belluno, there were some particularly interesting specimens of Venetian painting between the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries. Among them is the beautiful Portrait of a Young Man by Vittore Ghislandi, known as Fra' Galgario, perhaps part of a larger painting, which reveals the great talents of the Bergamo master, his penetrating naturalism, and his successful coloristic insights. The Lucchese Pietro Ricchi, represented here with Moses Saved from the Waters, was instead one of the most interesting 'foreign' artists active in the territories of the Most Serene Republic during the Seventeenth century. He contributed to transforming Venetian painting into a Baroque style, often with daring luministic solutions, not unaware of a lesson of distant Caravaggesque extraction, suggested by the chromatic range of this canvas. Also widespread in the Venetian Baroque collections were the rustic scenes by Philipp Roos, known as Rosa da Tivoli, the most important German animal painter of the Seventeenth century, who found success in Italy, in Rome, and especially in the Veneto region.

Room 14: Belluno, portrait of a city between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The sixteenth point of interest focuses on what Belluno was like between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

In this room you can play at rethinking and reformulating the city of Belluno until you see it through the eyes of a man from the 17th or 18th century. The Sermon of St. Bernardino of Siena, by Francesco Frigimelica the Younger, partially inspired by the painting by Andrea Schiavone preserved in the cathedral, is dedicated to the saint who in 1423 calmed the conflicts between the factions of Belluno. In the glimpse of the work, you can see a part of the original layout of Piazza Duomo. Noteworthy for the breadth of the view is then the Perspective Plan by Domenico Falce, dated 1690 and created in honor of the Venetian rector Antonio Boldù, whose coat of arms appears. In this work, the painter combines an analytical urbanistic description, thanks to which you can get an idea of the original extension of the historic city center, with a fantastic and anecdotal vein, as shown by the rafts arriving at Borgo Piave for the floating of timber. As a sort of votive offering, instead, is conceived the canvas by Antonio Lazzarini, which testifies to a Clash between the raftsmen and the guards that occurred in 1718 and was resolved thanks to the miraculous intervention of the Virgin Mary. But let us now move on to one of the most important landscape painters of the early decades of the 18th century in Europe: the Belluno-born Marco Ricci. This artist, nephew of Sebastiano, dedicated himself, imagine, even to the particular genre of caricature (genre scenes in which characters are comically depicted through 'loaded' portraits), an area in which he was particularly active during his stay in England. Perhaps predating that experience, but foreshadowing the ironic and disenchanted look towards humanity, is the View of Piazza Campitello that you can admire in this room, a unique cross-section of daily life and the city of Belluno at the beginning of the century.

Room 15: Andrea Brustolon and the Baroque period in Belluno

The seventeenth point of interest focuses on the Baroque artist Andrea Brustolon.

In this large room dedicated to the Baroque period in Belluno, the works of one of the greatest sculptors and carvers of all time take center stage: Andrea Brustolon. At the Civic Museum of Belluno, the complete album of the artist's drawings is preserved, consisting of about seventy-five sheets, many of which were preparatory for his most famous works: a unique document on the sculptor's working method and inventiveness, whose language has won the praise not only of his contemporaries but also of later centuries. Just think, for example, that in the mid-19th century, Honoré de Balzac, in his exceptional novel "Cousin Pons" (1847), remembered him as the "Michelangelo of wood." Among the stages of study of his masterpieces, there are the three preparatory terracotta sketches that you can admire here, revealing a great sensitivity and deep naturalism in plastic creation, still driven by the spark of the initial idea. The allegory of Grace was created for a series of wooden sculptures commissioned by Uncle Piloni, who is also depicted in profile in the medallion on your right, signed and dated 1727. The sketch of the Crucifixion, from 1728, is instead preparatory for the altarpiece now preserved in the church of San Pietro in Belluno, but commissioned for the Jesuit church. From the church of San Giuseppe comes the wooden Crucifix that you can see at the end of the room, a precious example of the technical virtuosity that Brustolon brought to wood carving, a lesson that had numerous followers in the Belluno area, such as the Capuchin friar Francesco Dalla Dia. In the field of painting, the most significant figure between the 17th and 18th centuries is undoubtedly Agostino Ridolfi, associated with the so-called 'tenebrous' movement in Venice, interested in chiaroscuro contrasts and particularly lively storytelling, a style also approached by Antonio Lazzarini. Antonio Gabrieli, active mainly in the 18th century, was instead a promoter, sometimes a bit naive, of the teachings of Ricci and Diziani as well as the art of Antonio Guardi. The large canvas depicting the Immaculate Conception and the city's patron saints comes from the Noble Council Chamber of the city.

Room 16: Marco Ricci and the 18th-century landscape

The eighteenth point of interest is dedicated to the painter Maro Ricci.

Here we are in the realm of Marco Ricci and the eighteenth-century landscape painting genre. Just as Sebastiano Ricci gave a decisive turn to grand decorative and historical painting, innovating it in a Rococo and eighteenth-century key, so did his nephew Marco, also from Belluno, transform landscape painting, leading it from the chiaroscuro contrasts of the Baroque season to a free, clear dimension, and we could say, a 'meteorological' dimension of nature. A comparison between the Ricci examples presented here and the landscape painted by Antonio Marini, a painter with whom Marco had been confused in the past, is revealing in this sense: as dramatic and tumultuous as Marini's landscape appears, so serene and clearly constructed are those of Ricci. Perhaps not everyone knows that Marco, to counteract the yellowish patina effect that oil naturally leaves on the canvas over time, not suitable for all types of landscapes, invented an entirely new technique. After spending a long time experimenting with the most suitable solutions, he finally arrived at one that allowed him to paint bright landscapes, with whites and all other brilliant colors: he began to paint in tempera on kid leather, constructing his painting with color blotches and touches of light. The specimens exhibited here, created with this technique, are representative of a genre called "capriccio": a world where nature and reality coexist with the fantasy of ruinous elements. Observing these small luminous paintings, you can realize the lucid and rational optical conception that governed Marco Ricci's art, the same conception that would later be decisive for Canaletto's views. In Belluno, where Marco used to return and stay frequently, as if to reestablish a direct and privileged connection with the mountains and nature depicted in his paintings, a landscape school emerged that would also have a following in the following century. Antonio Diziani, son of Gaspare, was active in landscape painting, taking cues from Marco's work, but reworking them in a more anecdotal interpretation and with genre themes. Giuseppe Zais, starting from the same Ricci experience, was able to update himself in Venice on what the most important 'Arcadian' landscapist of the eighteenth century, Francesco Zuccarelli, was achieving, maintaining accents of naturalism and truth of the rural world he represents through rich and trembling brushstrokes.

Room 17: Sebastiano Ricci

The nineteenth point of interest is dedicated to the artist Sebastiano Ricci.

Sebastiano Ricci, born in Belluno in 1659, was one of those artists capable of assimilating and transforming an entire pictorial tradition, playing a role somewhat similar to that carried out, a century earlier, by Peter Paul Rubens. He was indeed a protagonist of the transformation that took place in European painting at the transition from the Baroque to the Rococo era, well represented by the works left in Padua at the Basilica of Santa Giustina (1700) and in Florence, at Palazzo Pitti and Palazzo Marucelli (1707). In this room, you also have the opportunity to grasp the sensibility of the hand from which Sebastiano learned the first secrets of art: the large canvas with Tritons and Nereids is in fact the work of his master, Federico Cervelli, a Milanese painter transplanted to Venice, who in this work shows all his inclination towards the rediscovery of a luminous and neo-Veronese art. Ricci's biography is characterized by a long journey between northern and central Italy, with a stay in England, together with his nephew Marco, where he decorated, for example, Burlington House and the Chelsea Royal Hospital, as well as in Paris and Vienna. This lets you imagine the wealth of experiences the young Sebastiano could draw from, reworking them according to his own poetic, a visual culture of exceptional vastness. Still linked to seventeenth-century painting and its dramatic chiaroscuro effects is the mysterious canvas, an unusually unprepared tempera, depicting Job's Patience, perhaps related to some undiscovered decorative cycle, as suggested by the presence of the faux stucco frame. Already a product of the new style, freer, more atmospheric, and luminous, thanks to the rediscovery of Paolo Veronese, is the Rest during the Flight into Egypt, perhaps to be placed during the artist's time in England. The Head of the Samaritan Woman instead comes from the lost cycle of Villa Belvedere in Belluno (1718), commissioned by Bishop Bembo, and unfortunately destroyed. The decoration, as documented by a drawing by Osvaldo Monti, was punctuated by biblical episodes but also by scenes of contemporary life, such as Sebastiano's self-portrait with his nephew Marco. The Satyr and the Peasant Family is, finally, a testament to the mature production and the 'touch' style with which Sebastiano interpreted some of his creations, indulging a very 18th-century love for the speed, invention, and improvisation, almost musical, of sketches: "this little one is the original," he wrote, sending a preparatory model of a large altarpiece to one of his clients, declaring the supremacy of the creative act.

Room 18: The Eighteenth Century

The twentieth point of interest further delves into the eighteenth-century painting period in Belluno.

Sebastiano Ricci, along with Antonio Pellegrini and Jacopo Amigoni, played a decisive role in the transformation of Venetian painting into an eighteenth-century style. In this room, you can admire the works of an artist who was his student, Gaspare Diziani, also a native of Belluno. One of the most important painters of the mid-century, he traveled to Rome and Germany, fulfilling commissions from all over Europe (consider that he decorated the ceiling of the Winter Palace, now the Hermitage in St. Petersburg), both on canvas and frescoes. In Belluno, among other things, he left the altarpiece with the Ecstasy of Saint Francis in the church of San Rocco, and the remarkable Annunciation displayed here, narrated with domestic tones, and enlivened by subtle touches of light. The Portrait of Almorò Pisani is instead the work of the most important Venetian portraitist of the second half of the century, Alessandro Longhi. The canvas portrays the very young member of one of the most important families of the Serenissima, also known for having created a drawing academy in his palace in San Vidal district, and who died at only twenty years old. The work is what remains of a larger group portrait, of which only the mother Marina Sagredo's dress can be seen today: the very young Pisani is dressed to the nines like an adult, with a tricorne hat and a gray-blue veil virtuosically highlighted with touches of gold. Finally, among the protagonists of the century, we also remember Giambattista Pittoni. His monochrome with the Allegory of Venice is a true test of skill: the artist wanted to simulate sculptural bas-relief with painting here; it is up to you to judge how excellently he succeeded in his intention!

Room 19: Valentino and Caterina Panciera Besarel

The twenty-first point of interest focuses on two famous nineteenth-century carvers from Belluno.

The tradition of wood carving in Belluno had another great exponent in the 19th century: Valentino Panciera Besarel. Coming from a family of carvers from Val di Zoldo, with the support of the architect Giuseppe Segusini, he managed to attend the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice from 1853 to 1855 and had Luigi Ferrari as his teacher. Positioning himself as the heir of Andrea Brustolon's art, in 1869 he paid homage to him by creating an intense Ideal Bust. Valentino became a sculptor and a highly successful furniture maker: from his workshop-house in San Barnaba in Venice, he shipped frames and consoles to every part of Europe, works in which the recovery of Venetian baroque alternated with references to Renaissance models and prototypes, and a somewhat eclectic interpretation of neoclassicism. A common feature of his works, both in religious and secular contexts, was the virtuosity in carving, a result of extreme technical skill, which earned him commissions from the royal house of Savoy, for which he created works destined for the Quirinale Palace in Rome. Like Brustolon, Valentino also used terracotta models: in this room you can find preparatory sketches for the Evangelists of the Belluno Cathedral and for the angels used in the tabernacle of the church of San Rocco, all brought together in a display case designed and created by the artist himself to be donated to the Civic Museum of Belluno in 1895. You can also see the sketches of San Daniele and San Giovanni Battista, preparatory works for the sculptures of the sanctuary of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Este, and the bas-relief of the large wooden altarpiece with the Crucifixion, commissioned for the parish church of Vigo di Cadore, a work that Besarel presented at the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1867, achieving great success. Sometimes, skill in plastic modeling can result in autonomous works: this is the case with the Portrait of the little De Col Tana, created in 1857 in fat clay, meaning allowing the clay to dry naturally, then finished with a liquid mixture of water and clay (called 'slip') to confer a naturalistic epidermal look to the sculpture. If you turn around after bidding a final farewell to the little girl from Belluno, you can admire the portrait of the sculptor next to his wife. Valentino's daughter, Caterina Panciera (known as "Ninetta"), became increasingly active in the family workshop over the years, especially after her father lost four fingers of his right hand in a work accident in 1885. A true artist's daughter, she produced very successful works, such as these portraits of her parents, marked by a careful and unpretentious realism, almost humble, and precisely for this reason so true, intimate, and affectionate.

Room 20: Ippolito Caffi. The view and landscape in the nineteenth century.

The twenty-second point of interest is dedicated to the master landscape painter Ippolito Caffi.

The twentieth room of our exhibition is dedicated to one of the main protagonists of landscape painting in the nineteenth century: Ippolito Caffi. In Belluno, where the painter was born in 1809, the artistic tradition still followed the somewhat tired path of Marco Ricci and his successors such as Paolo de Filippi, known as Betto, who were still active in the nineteenth century. By focusing on both cityscapes and naturalistic views, Ippolito Caffi managed to rejuvenate a genre that, after Marco, Canaletto, and Guardi, seemed to have little left to say. You can see for yourself the skill with which he was able to innovate it. Initially trained in academic painting, particularly under the guidance of his cousin Pietro Paoletti in Padua, and then, from 1826 to 1831, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, Caffi found his calling through a trip to Rome in 1832. The painter then specialized in the genre of landscape painting, using previously unimagined solutions: as you can see from the examples exhibited here, Caffi combines optical accuracy with a sensitivity for the emotional element of the image, often emphasized by original luministic effects and 'special effects': blinding backlight, atmospheric and astronomical events, night scenes illuminated by colored flashes. Even the most reproduced view is animated by a new spirit: this is the case with the two Venetian views, one of the most beloved cities by vedutisti of all ages, which, however, appears so original in the solutions chosen by our artist. Caffi worked in both small formats (paintings often in multiple versions of different sizes) and in large mural decorations, sometimes with exotic subjects, in line with the Orientalist taste of those years. This artist enjoyed traveling. Starting from the thirties, he traveled throughout Italy (often in Rome, but also Naples, Genoa, Trieste), in Europe (Nice, Switzerland, London, Madrid, Paris) until he embarked on a journey to the East in 1843: Athens, Constantinople, and Egypt, an experience that inspired him with themes and solutions for his landscapes for a long time. Caffi seems to have been truly tireless: politically engaged in the Risorgimento battle, imprisoned several times and subjected to exile, the master died in the sinking of the Italian flagship during the Battle of Lissa in 1866. During his frequent returns to Belluno, where Caffi interrupted his wandering, he created various drawings, sketches, and paintings of his homeland. Almost like intimate confessions, freely constructed with splashes of color, suggesting comparisons with the best European art of the nineteenth century and particularly with Corot, the paintings exhibited here were perhaps intended by the artist for a familiar audience. Another voice, worthy of rediscovery and, above all, of receiving equal attention, is that of Alessandro Seffer. You can get a clear idea of the abilities of this artist by closely observing in detail the painting "Hunting on the Banks of the Piave" exhibited here. Seffer, building upon Caffi's style, intertwines bolder wide-angle outdoor scenes, as in this case, or scenes that lean towards more anecdotal themes, such as the "Band Concert in Campitello Square" from 1901, which you can see on your left.

Room 21: Nineteenth-century Sculpture in Belluno

The twenty-third point of interest is dedicated to Bellunese sculpture in the 19th century.

Let's now move on to the sculpture of the nineteenth century in Belluno. Throughout the 19th century, the Municipalità Cittadina represented a great promoter of public commissions for art, mostly aimed at celebrating the protagonists of Belluno's culture and politics, as well as, after the Unification of Italy, of national history. Alongside Valentino Panciera Besarel, leading figure of the group of Belluno artists, other important sculptors were active. An important contribution was made by Luigi Borro, a native of Ceneda introduced to the Venetian artistic environment by the Bellunese Giovanni Demin. Endowed with extraordinary talent and uncommon technical skills, Borro is the author of the Bust of Dante located in the city above Porta Reniera, as well as an intense Portrait of Ippolito Caffi, created after the death of his friend at the request of a group of citizens. In 1864, the city also commissioned from the sculptor the Portrait of Tommaso Antonio Catullo, the famous Bellunese geologist and zoologist, who is depicted with a mischievous yet amiable grin, in a work of expressive and anti-rhetorical naturalism that ranks among the best creations of Venetian sculpture in the nineteenth century, breaking away from all academic conventions. In the realm of local portraiture, Giovanni Giacomini stands out. Again commissioned by the Municipality of Belluno, he created portraits of Vittorio Emanuele II and Giuseppe Garibaldi, rendered with a familiar and realistic tone that diminishes the emphasis of official celebration, turning them into mythic fathers of the nation to whom to pay a familiar tribute (as also shown in the contemporary painting by Sommavilla). For more official monuments, Girolamo Bortotti was often preferred, the author of the monument to Vittorio Emanuele II for the city hall, of which you can see the terracotta sketch here. Other sculptors worked in the territory between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They deserve to be mentioned here, in particular: Annibale De Lotto, native of San Vito di Cadore, involved in many public monuments throughout the Veneto and author of the portrait of the Trentino irredentist hero Cesare Battisti, hanged in Trento in 1916; Urbano Nono, brother of the better-known painter Luigi, author of the bust of the lawyer Jacopo Tasso, executed in 1849 for his participation in the uprisings against the Austrians the previous year, a preparatory work for the monument commissioned by the Municipality of Longarone in 1911.

Room 22: Demin, Paoletti, Placido Fabris. 19th-century painting in Belluno

The twenty-fourth point of interest is dedicated to the key 19th-century figures from Belluno in the artistic and cultural world.

Who were the protagonists of the 19th-century painting in Belluno? The 19th century was a particularly fortunate century for the arts in this region. Here, in addition to the already mentioned Ippolito Caffi, was born a master like Giovanni Demin, who, together with Francesco Hayez, imposed a decisive turn in painting and decoration in a neoclassical sense, so much so that Antonio Canova, his protector along with Leopoldo Cicognara, came to consider him as the true pictorial genius of his time, supporting him during his pension in Rome in 1809. In Belluno, Demin left the important decoration of the council hall at the municipal palace, of which the canvas with Ezzelino driven back from the city walls is a preparatory model. Many Belluno artists of the time successfully specialized in portraiture: among them, we remember Galeazzo Monti, an amateur painter, and Pietro Paoletti, a student of Demin, generally active in works of historical nature and large decorations, but also a sensitive interpreter in this field, as revealed by the beautiful Portrait of Angelo Doglioni (1844). Also a specialist in the genre was Placido Fabris, from Pieve d'Alpago, educated at the Venetian Academy and also active in Trieste (1824-32). In his Portrait of Gaspare Craglietto, he reveals an extraordinary mimetic ability and a meticulous care, almost Flemish in the definition of the character's face, a wealthy Dalmatian shipowner, residing in Venice and also a collector of Nordic works. You may notice a similar, almost maniacal virtuosity in the Portrait of Germanico Bernardi, in front of which we ask you to resist the urge to stroke the fur of his attire. We assure you it is painted. In the second half of the century, in the field of portraiture, Francesco Bettio stood out, also active in genre subjects of Favretto-like style. Son of Galeazzo, Osvaldo Monti was instead a central figure in the cultural events of Belluno, promoter of the establishment of the Civic Museum in 1876 and portrayed here by Pompeo Marino Molmenti, a professor of painting at the Venetian Academy and very interested in the study of reality. Osvaldo also took part in the 1848 uprisings, which he recalled in lively narrative vignettes, some of which you may have noticed in the previous room.

Room 25: Votive tablets from the church of Sant'Andrea.

The twenty-fifth point of interest focuses on the votive tablets of the church of St. Andrew.

This small room in the museum houses a very particular testimony of the popular culture of Belluno: the votive tablets originating from the church of Sant'Andrea. This small church, once located in Piazza Duomo between the cathedral and the baptistery, was severely damaged by the earthquake of 1873 and demolished the following year. On the displayed 14th-century commemorative epigraph, once placed above the entrance door, you can read the Veneto-Bellunese dialect of the late Middle Ages, preceded by a Latin text of liturgical formula; this important artifact testifies to the founding initiative of the church by the will of Andrea Morello and his son Piero and, following their death, by Piero's wife, "dona Bonaventura," in the year 1350. You must imagine a church of very small dimensions, six meters long and four meters wide, adorned with silver ex-votos and these small votive paintings: as many as possible were saved thanks to the intervention of the municipal authorities, ultimately ending up in the Civic Museum of Belluno. What exactly is meant by "ex-voto"? These are objects dedicated to God, the Madonna, or specific saints, offered to them in gratitude for having received a particular grace. Consider that the votive tablets you are observing range from the 15th to the 19th century: thus, on a single wall, you have before you a testimony of the popular faith spanning four hundred years of history. These small and fragile works constitute an extraordinary testimony of the devotion and popular art of the city of Belluno over the centuries, as well as the habits and daily life of the city. You can recognize episodes ranging from the faithful in prayer to new births, healings of the sick, as well as many incidents, happily resolved: falls down stairs, ceiling collapses, bandit assaults, carriage accidents, and even the unleashing of natural forces. An abundance of anecdotes that you can peruse with your eyes as if it were a comic strip or, if you prefer, an entertaining cartoon. You may notice how the artists who created these scenes appear closely linked to the style of the major painters active in Belluno: you will find references to the art of Matteo Cesa or Giovanni da Mel, frequent among the early tablets, which sometimes disseminate, in a more humble key, even prestigious models from the Vivarini circle; as the centuries progress, you can recognize the influences of Francesco Frigimelica, Antonio Gabrieli, Gaspare Diziani, In short, a summary of the influence of the protagonists of the history of art in Belluno.

Room 26: Ricci and the Dressing Room of Hercules at Palazzo Fulcis.

The twenty-sixth point of interest in the dressing room of Hercules at Palazzo Fulcis.

The dressing room of Hercules in Palazzo Fulcis, adorned with precious high-relief stuccoes by Bortolo Cabianca, was decorated with some paintings by Sebastiano Ricci. Imagine then the Fall of Phaethon, which now dominates the wall in front of you, inserted between stucco frames on the ceiling, while on the walls there were two canvases depicting Hercules at the crossroads and Hercules and Omphale. These masterpieces are temporarily housed on the top floor of the museum, awaiting the acquisition and restoration of the original setting of the Dressing Room, still existing in the building of Palazzo Fulcis, where it is hoped they will soon be reinstated. In addition to the three large canvases surrounding you, the Riccian decorative cycle of the Dressing Room included smaller ones: two oval canvases, now dispersed, depicting Apollo and Daphne and Pan and Syrinx and cupids; four violet monochromes painted in oil on the wall with Diana and Actaeon, Apollo and Marsyas, The Battle between the Lapiths and Centaurs, and a Bacchanalia, fortunately still in place. The cycle was probably commissioned to Sebastiano Ricci on the occasion of the appointment of Pietro Fulcis (1702) as a Knight of the Order of Malta, whose emblem still appears in the surviving stucco decoration of the Dressing Room. At this moment, you find yourselves among the pictorial masterpieces of what has been described as "the most beautiful dressing room of the European 18th century." Inside this environment, Ricci's individual canvases were conceived as a pedagogy through images, capable of engaging the senses and stimulating the imagination of their observer: try to let yourself be carried away by this intention, and follow the narrative. The Fall of Phaethon, as often in other uses of this same subject, was a theme of ostentatious humility, an implicit invitation for the young Pietro not to become proud of the new acquired status, in order not to incur divine punishment and hence a fall. The scene, conceived with a dazzling and vertiginous upside-down, made dramatic by flashes of light and color, was meant to overwhelm the visitor, who was therefore involved as an actor of the scene, in a still Baroque spirit. The other two canvases are also invitations addressed to Pietro: on the one hand, with Hercules and Omphale, you can grasp the suggestion not to be misled by amorous passions; on the other hand, with Hercules at the crossroads, the encouragement to always choose the arduous path of Virtue. Overall, the cycle of three canvases in Palazzo Fulcis represents a fundamental episode to understand the decisive turn that Sebastiano Ricci gave to Venetian painting around the turn of the two centuries, towards a more open and free manner, already partaking of Rococo taste, but not foreign to the luministic contrasts of the 17th century.