Methodology
Depending on the subject in question and the museum chosen, the focus will either be on the historical, artistic or naturalistic aspect, adopting an approach based on narration, the study of documentary sources, the experimentation of artistic and compositive techniques, the interpretation of works of art, or comparative observation of organisms that belong to different plant and animal groups or similarities and differences in the natural world.
Objectives and skills
– Direct, detailed knowledge of the formal and stylistic aspects and content of the works, to be able to identify characteristic elements especially in relation to iconographic and iconological aspects.
– Development of critical skills in the understanding of the cultural patrimony of museums as a historical documentary source.
– Acquisition of knowledge regarding the diversification and complexity of organisms and their development, also by reflecting on the threats facing biodiversity in relation to the relationship between man and the environment.
All the educational units in the programme have the objective of developing critical, creative and divergent thought via the use of diverse materials, instruments and techniques, both in the artistic and naturalistic field, as well as the reinforcement of transversal skills of a social nature aimed at encouraging multicultural integration.
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DOGE’S PALACE
Active tours
The halls of power
The tour focuses primarily on the state rooms of the Doge’s Palace, where the impressive series of paintings, exciting pictures, magnificent sculptures and ornaments decorate the rooms that were the prestigious offices for the administration of the Serenissima. Through this course, the students will be aided by info cards for the important pieces of artwork. The complex operation of the machinery of government at the time of the Republic will be outlined, also highlighting the iconographic programme promoted by the Venetian ruling class to establish and celebrate the legendary Venice.
Duration: 2 hours
When: Every day
Time: From 8.30 on
Languages: Italian, English, French, German, Russian
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CORRER MUSEUM
Active tours
A thousand souls of the Correr Museum
Together with the historical-political epilogue of the Venetian Republic, the collections that were started by Teodoro Correr at the end of the eighteenth century marked the beginning of the process that was to result in the creation of the extraordinary artistic and historical heritage of the Venetian Civic Museums.
Thanks to studies, discoveries and recent restorations, today the museum offers a heterogeneous itinerary that allows visitors to discover the art and history of Venice.
During the itinerary several works from the following sections of the museum will be analysed:
– the Neo-Classical Rooms, in the Napoleonic Wing, the nineteenth century residence of kings and emperors, which house an impressive collection of works by Antonio Canova.
– The Rooms of Empress Sissi, including the Audience Room, study, bedroom – with its lavish upholstery and boudoir – and the personalised bathroom with priceless furnishings from the Napoleonic period.
– The rooms dedicated to the discovery of the history and Venetian Civilisation: From everyday life to the institutions, undertakings at sea and local celebrations;
– The Picture Collection with its important masterpieces of art in the Veneto from its very beginnings to the sixteenth century.
Duration: 2 hours
When: Every day
Time: from 10.00 on
Languages: Italian, English, French, Russian
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CA’ REZZONICO
Active tours
From Tiepolo to Canaletto. The last great season of Venetian painting
Abounding in original period furniture and furnishings, the amazing, lavish rooms in the Palazzo with their elegant decorations, exquisitely made tapestries and official portraits all describe a Venice that is still affluent and powerful, carefree and pleasure-seeking. However, a more careful look at the works by the most important protagonists of the last great season of Venetian painting, for example Tiepolo, Canaletto, Longhi and the Guardis will reveal another side to Venice: a city that is beginning its lengthy, slippery path towards modern times.
Duration: 2 hours
When: Every day except Tuesdays
Time: from 10.00 on
Languages: Italian, English, French, Russian
The gown doesn’t make the friar
The itinerary offers a detailed look at Venetian life in the eighteenth century and at its transformed cultural, political and social climate; the instruments used are not only the iconographic study of the rooms and furnishings in the museum but also the paintings – a true iconological source of the fashion of the last century of the Venetian Republic.
Duration: 2 hours
When: Every day except Tuesdays
Time: from 10.00 on
Languages: Italian, English, French, Russian
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PALAZZO MOCENIGO
Active tours
An invite to the Palace
What was life like in a Venetian Palace? What were the mannerisms of the rich Venetian society in the 700’s? How were the nobles dressed? The answers to these and many other questions will be found through a game journey that will cover the rooms of the Palace, once inhibited by the distinguished Mocenigo family, and then tuned into to the Centre of Studies of the History of Textiles and Costumes; the students will be accompanied to rooms dedicated to the history of fashion and the section recently dedicated to perfume. Through luxury, elegance and extravagant cosmetics, the relations between Venice and the Oriental sphere will be discovered along with the warps and wefts of the styles that made the 1700’s in Venice unforgettable.
Duration: 2 hours
When: Everyday except Monday
Time: From 10 on
Language: Italian, English, French and Russian
Venice and fashion
Historically, Venice was one of the most important production centres of fabrics: Rediscovering the city in this light is the objective of the first part of the programme and will use the lively emblems of the ancient arts and crafts guilds, positioning them on the map of Venice, to visualize the places that, with the curious names of alleyways, squares and buildings, still evoke the intense activities associated with the production, dying, and sale of fabrics.
But how did they dress in the past? Did they change often? Did they use underwear? These questions will be answered in the second part of the workshop when attention moves to fashion, in particular that of the eighteenth century, and a vast selection of which is on display in the museum rooms with splendid men’s and women’s garments, including children’s clothes and a wide range of accessories that are testimony to the customs and everyday life of that period.
Duration: 2 hours
When: From 4 November 2014 – Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays
Time: from 10.00 on
Languages: Italian, English
Workshops
The world on a piece of fabric
A workshop in which the different kinds of fibres used for fabrics, whether natural, manmade or synthetic, can be seen and touched, getting to know where they come from and how they are transformed into our clothes, analyzing the stages that start with the raw material and end with the spun. This is followed by actual weaving with the concrete creation of a braid, first on paper and then on a small manual loom, with a live demonstration of weaving on a shaft loom at the end.
Duration: 2 hours
When: from 4 November 2014 – Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays
Time: from 10.00 on
Languages: Italian, English
Dyed and printed
Game – a lesson to get to know the different phases of dying and experiment creatively and actively with printing on fabrics.
The young elementary school participants will be invited to write their own name together with a figure, using letter stencils and images.
Each participant is asked to bring a 100% white cotton T-shirt that they will decorate during the activity.
Duration: 2 hours
When: from 4 November 2014 – Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays
Time: from 10.00 on
Languages: Italian, English
The focal point of the question
The evolution of lace and her designs: from the 15th century to modern catwalks. This interesting story will be illustrated through images and the examination of original pieces from the abundant collections of the Mocenigo Palace. The analysis will be even more stimulating thanks to the use of a digital microscope that is able to reveal the wonders of the details in lace. This way the students will be able to understand the major differences between needle, bobbin and machine lace. To conclude this activity the students will be accompanied through the Museum rooms, to see the lace in exhibition.
Duration: an hour and a half
When: From the 21st October 2014-everyday except Monday
Time: From 10 on
Languages: Italian, English, Spanish
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CASA DI CARLO GOLDONI
Itineraries offered
From the Goldoni house to Ca’ Rezzonico.
A walk through eighteenth century Venice
The aim of this programme is to look in closer detail at the cultural and social aspects of Venice in the eighteenth century via the dialogue and comparison of two of the protagonists of that century: Carlo Goldoni and Pietro Longhi, in the two museums that still preserve their memory today, Ca’ Centanni (the Goldoni house) and Ca’ Rezzonico.
The itinerary between the two museums is guided by interactive worksheets that can be downloaded from the website www.visitmuve.it
Duration: 2 and a half hours
When: Every day except Tuesdays and Wednesdays
Time: from 10.00 on
Languages: Italian, English, French, and Russian
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CA’ PESARO
Active tours
The Avant-garde Shock
Realism, Impressionism, Symbolism, Cubism, Expressionism, Surrealism, Abstract and Pop Art: what are the avant-gardes? Where do they originate from? What was their impact on the world of art? These questions will be answered through a interdisciplinary reading of the works exhibited, that will outline the concept of avant-garde, connecting the different artistic movements with their respective historical, political and cultural context.
This tour will highlight the tension that animated the figurative arts between the end of the 1800’s and the beginning of the 1900’s and the artistic developments after the second world war.
Duration: 2 hours
When: Everyday except Monday
Time: From 10 on
Languages: Italian, English, French
The Fabulous Lives of Artist
The controversy between Auguste Rodin and Medardo Rosso, the social climate of the Secessionism in Vienna, Arturo Martini’s temper, Picasso’s women, the odd quirks of surrealist and the illustrious Andy Warhol….art’s history told by the lives and the vicissitudes of its artist. The artistic tendencies of the 1900’s are presented to the students starting from an analysis of the figure of an artist in his total human complexity with the aim of bringing the young visitors closer to the mythical figures described in art history handbooks.
The relationships between artist, their eccentricities, and their meeting places become starting points for illustrating artistic developments of the 20th century, stimulating curiosity in the students.
Duration: 2 hours
When: Everyday except Monday
Time: Form 10 on
Languages: Italian, English, French
Colour in twentieth century painting
From the second half of the nineteenth century, painting was characterised by significant formal changes made by artists such as the Impressionists and Macchiaioli who tried to free themselves from the restraints of the Academy. Their brushstrokes became more rapid and at first glance the images seem very imprecise; bright colours are used without any different shades, applied directly from the tube. The ideal place for the itinerary to start is the canvas by the Spanish artist Sorolla, where a group of young girls are sewing a dazzling white canvas immerged in the light and colours of summer; it ends in the second half of the twentieth century with the Italian Alberto Burri who portrays all shades of black on a large abstract canvas made of plastic. An itinerary that goes from white to black, passing the different colours of De Nittis, Previati, Balla, Boccioni, Nolde, Kandinsky, Ernst, Vedova, Santomaso, Morlotti, Afro and many others.
Duration: 2 hours
When: Every day except Mondays
Time: from 10.00 on
Languages: Italian, English, French
Sculpted Thoughts
Sculpture itineraries in Ca’ Pesaro
From ancient times until the end of the nineteenth century, with almost no interruption the function of sculpture was purely monumental and celebratory, as is evident in both the countless isolated sculptures to be found and in those that are part of buildings.
It was at the beginning of the twentieth century that this well-established tradition was then radically interrupted when sculpture underwent a profound change when anti-monumentalism and anti-rhetoric became its primary vocation. This marked the beginning of a ceaseless process of linguistic experimentation, with the use of unusual materials, a change in the relationship between the sculpture and its setting, and between solids and voids, overcoming figuration to such an extent that the canonic distinction between painting and sculpture no longer applied.
The main stages of the development of this transformation in sculpture are documented here with a careful selection of works of high quality: the modern transformation of late nineteenth century sculpture in different ways and forms by Auguste Rodin and Medardo Rosso, the synthesis between Expression and Classicism by Adolfo Wildt, Arturo Martini’s anti-classical figures that are considered symbolic of the twentieth century, the vitalist theme introduced by Jean Arp and revived by Henry Moore’s anthropomorphic forms, Alexander Calder’s aethereal and light ‘mobile’ sculptures, Emilio Vedova’s ‘plurime’ paintings/sculptures, the monolithic bodies by Giovanni Anselmo, an exponent of Arte povera, and the Neo-Pop fetish objects by Jeff Koons.
Duration: 2 hours
When: Every day except Mondays
Time: from 10.00 on
Languages: Italian, English, French
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GLASS MUSEUM
Active tours
The history of an art
The valuable collections on display, together with the technical section explaining the stages, materials and instruments of the process, describe the adventure of Venetian glass.
A mixture of ingenious forms, models and experiments, the itinerary goes back over the discoveries, inventions and ‘artistic secrets’ that contributed to the success of the famous Murano glass.
Duration: 2 hours
When: Every day
Time: from 10.00 on
Languages: Italian, English, French, Russian
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LACE MUSEUM
Active tours
Lace is fashionable
The analysis of a time-line aids the understanding of lace as a fashion accessory that developed in style and form, whilst constantly referring to the Venetian historical-artistic context. The use of a digital microscope will allow the students to explore some original historical clothing pieces.The time-line ends at the present day, highlighting how, in recent years, lace has once again become a protagonist and fashionable.
Duration: 2 hours
When: Every day except Mondays and Tuesdays
Time: from 10.00 on
Languages: Italian, English, Spanish