16-17 June 2025
Venice, Doge’s Palace
Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia – Muve Academy offers a course dedicated to exploring a lesser-known chapter in Monet’s career: his stay in Venice during the autumn of 1908.
The encounter between Claude Monet and the city of Venice was truly extraordinary, giving rise to one of the most fascinating phases in the history of art—when his painting became increasingly free and abstract, almost a prelude to the extraordinary Water Lilies series.
Curated by Elena Marchetti (Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia), the course retraces, with the guidance of leading international experts on the subject, the paths Monet followed throughout the city, focusing on the places where he set up his easel and the palaces where he stayed. The goal is to reconstruct his unique perspective on the world, immersed in the vibrant cultural atmosphere of the early 20th century, animated by figures such as Henry James and Isabella Stewart Gardner.
Monday, 16th June 2025, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Institutional Greetings
Elena Marchetti, Curator, Doge’s Palace and Correr Museum, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia
Elusive and eternal. Venice between the 18th and 19th centuries, at the origins of a contemporary myth
Melissa Buron, Director of Collections and Chief Curator, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
“Too Beautiful to Be Painted” : the thirty-seven canvases by Claude Monet dedicated to Venice
Lisa Small, Senior Curator of European Art, Brooklyn Museum, New York
From the water lily pond to the lagoon, where the colorful palaces bloom: Contextualizing Monet’s Venice Paintings.
Mario Merigo, Musicologist
Luminous oddities: the musical Venice of the Early 20th century
Elsa Gregori, Independent Researcher
The Grand Hotel Britannia in the time of Claude Monet
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Tuesday, 17th June 2025, 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Nathaniel Silver, Associate Director and Chief Curator, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Isabella Stewart Gardner, the Artistic Circle of Palazzo Barbaro, and Fenway Court
Rosella Mamoli Zorzi, Professor Emerita of Anglo-American Languages and Literatures, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Venice 1908: salons and meetings
Cecilia Riva, Curator, Giancarlo Ligabue Foundation, Venice
A Private Venice: Ca’ Cappello Layard and other homes of Anglo-American Collecting between the 19th and 20th centuries
Chiara Squarcina, Scientific Director, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia
Concluding Remarks and Final Greetings
FIELD TRIP
Hotel Marriott St. Regis (formerly Grand Hotel Britannia): visit to Claude Monet’s room with coffee break
Palazzo Barbaro Curtis: visit to the apartment where Claude Monet stayed
PUBLIC TALK
1908: Monet a Venezia, l’incontro tra due miti, at The Human Safety Net, Venice
Elena Marchetti
Elena Marchetti is an art historian and curator specializing in nineteenth-century French paintings and Venetian art and architecture. She holds a Ph.D. in History of Art from the University of Bologna and currently serves as a curator at the Doge’s Palace (Palazzo Ducale) and at the Museo Correr in Venice, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. Marchetti’s scholarly work on a range of topics has been published in exhibition catalogues, journal articles, and essays. She served as the project manager for numerous international exhibitions at the Doge’s Palace, including “John Ruskin: The Stones of Venice” (2018), “Tintoretto 1519-1594” (2018-19, in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC), Anselm Kiefer (2022), “Vittore Carpaccio: Paintings and Drawings” (2023, in collaboration with NGA Washington). She ensured the scientific co-direction of the exhibition “From Titian to Rubens: Masterpieces from Antwerp and other Flemish Collections” (2019-20). She has contributed to multiple publications and authored several exhibition catalogues, such as “Hippolyte, Paul, Auguste: les Flandrin, artistes et frères” (Musée des beaux arts de Lyon, 2021), “Venise reveleé” (Grand Palais, 2022), “Louis Janmot, le poème de l’âme” (Musée d’Orsay, Paris, 2023), La Quadreria di Palazzo Ducale (Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, 2025).
Melissa Buron
Melissa Buron joined the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in 2024 as director of collections and chief curator. Previously, she held curatorial positions in European art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, where most recently she was the director of curatorial affairs. Her curatorial contributions have supported more than twenty special exhibitions on subjects from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. Her prior original exhibitions include Truth and Beauty: The Pre-Raphaelites and the Old Masters (2018) and James Tissot: Fashion & Faith (2019–20), which was co-organized with the Musée d’Orsay.
Lisa Small
Lisa Small has been a curator at the Brooklyn Museum since 2011, becoming Senior Curator of European art in 2017. She has organized numerous permanent collection installations and special exhibitions, including Monet to Morisot: The Real and Imagined in European Art (2022–23); Jacques-Louis David Meets Kehinde Wiley (2020); Rembrandt to Picasso: Five Centuries of European Works on Paper (2019); The Brooklyn Della Robbia (2018–present); Rodin: The Body in Bronze (2017); Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe (2014); and the touring exhibition French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850–1950 (2017–21, 2023–27).
Mario Merigo
Laureato alla facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia. Diplomato in violino, musica corale e direzione di coro al Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello, si è perfezionato in direzione d’orchestra a Vienna. Compositore, musicologo e critico musicale, ha più volte collaborato con la Rai. Scrive dagli anni Ottanta sulla pagina della cultura del Gazzettino di Venezia. Ha pubblicato numerosi saggi ed è regolarmente invitato come relatore in convegni e conferenze. Come direttore artistico degli Amici della Musica di Venezia ha organizzato due apprezzate stagioni cameristiche al Teatro La Fenice e, in collaborazione con l’Università Ca’ Foscari, il ciclo concertistico «Autenticità e identità». Nel 2018 ha vinto il Premio Speciale “Giacomo Massarotto” al Premio letterario nazionale Prunola con il suo romanzo storico-musicale Adorata amica (Panda Edizioni). Recentemente sono usciti Anch’io ho commesso un errore, menzione d’onore al Premio Cover, e La vigile attesa. Da sempre si occupa della storia di Venezia con particolare riferimento al Novecento musicale.
Elsa Gregori
Laurea magistrale in Lingue e Letterature Straniere all’Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia (1995), Master in Economia del Turismo all’Università Bocconi di Milano (2003).
Prima esperienza lavorativa alla Facoltà di Architettura dell’Università De Montfort di Leicester in Inghilterra, successivamente impiegata per catene alberghiere inglesi e statunitensi, da circa 28 anni lavora nel turismo alberghiero, attualmente a Venezia.
Libera ricercatrice in Storia degli Antichi Alberghi di Venezia, collabora come consulente in materia storica alberghiera per l’apertura di nuovi alberghi.
Di prossima uscita un suo saggio sugli Antichi Alberghi di Venezia per Cierre Edizioni.
Nel 2020 ha pubblicato con Supernova Edizioni il suo primo saggio sull’ospitalità alberghiera: Palace of Wonders, Venice. Un’opera in lingua inglese che narra la storia dei palazzi, delle famiglie e degli eventi che hanno caratterizzato lo storico Grand Hotel Britannia, oggi conosciuto come St. Regis Venice.
Nathaniel Silver
Nathaniel Silver recently returned to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum as Associate Director and Chief Curator. In his previous role there, he oversaw the Collections, Conservation, and Archives departments, and curated or co-curated more than a dozen exhibitions including the acclaimed Titian: Women, Myth, and Power and Boston’s Apollo: Thomas McKeller and John Singer Sargent. With nearly fifteen years of experience in fine art museums and cultural institutions, Silver has worked at The Frick Collection, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, and, most recently, served as the director of Hancock Shaker Village.
Rosella Mamoli Zorzi
Rosella Mamoli Zorzi, professore emerito di Letteratura anglo-americana, Università di Ca’ Foscari. Ha diretto il MA in traduzione letteraria dall’inglese e il dottorato. Ha curato pubblicazioni tra cui Henry James, Lettere da Palazzo Barbaro, Archinto, 1989; ed. inglese Pushkin Press, 1998, rist. 2002 e 2012; Henry James, Cara Donna Isabella. Lettere a Isabella Stewart Gardner, Archinto, 2004; ed. inglese Pushkin Press, 2009, rist. 2024. E’ tra i curatori di Gondola Days. Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2004 e di Sargent’s Venice, Yale University Press, 2006. Con Inge Reist ha curato Power Underestimated, American Women Collectors, Marsilio, 2011; e con K. Manthorne, From Darkness to Light. Writers in Museums 1798-1898, OpenBooks, 2019.Tra le pubblicazioni recenti: Meraviglia e ironia, con Henry James e Mark Twain al Palazzo Ducale di Venezia, Supernova, 2018; ed. ingl. 2018; “Quasi un profeta”, Henry James su Tintoretto, Supernova, 2018; ed. ingl. 2018; Carpatcher or Carpaccio? Carpaccio and 19th Century Anglo-American Writers in Venice, Supernova, 2023; con S.Francescato, The Aspern Papers and Other Tales, Cambridge University Press, 2022; paperback 2025. An American Painter in Venice. Ralph W. Curtis and the Palazzo Barbaro, with an essay by Elisabetta Barisoni, Leiden, Brill, 2024.Ha lavorato e pubblicato su W.D.Howells, W. Faulkner, W.C. Williams, W. Pound, E. Hemingway e altri autori nordamericani e canadesi.
Cecilia Riva
Cecilia Riva è storica dell’arte. Nel 2019 ha conseguito il dottorato di ricerca in Storia dell’arte presso l’Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia, IUAV e Università di Verona con una tesi su “Austen Henry Layard, collector and amateur. Diplomacy, Art History, and Collecting in 19th-century Europe”.
I suoi interessi di ricerca si concentrano sulla storia del collezionismo, con particolare attenzione al ruolo dei conoscitori e alle pratiche di tutela e conservazione del patrimonio artistico nel XIX secolo. Le sue indagini si sviluppano attorno ai processi di formazione di collezioni pubbliche e private, alla circolazione delle opere d’arte e all’evoluzione delle metodologie attributive e conservative nel contesto europeo.
Dopo aver lavorato a Palazzo Ducale a Venezia come catalogatrice, dal 2022 è conservatore presso la Fondazione Giancarlo Ligabue.
COURSE VENUE
Venice, Doge’s Palace
COURSE DURATION
Monday, 16 June: 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Tuesday, 17 June: 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM
PARTICIPATION DETAILS
The lectures will be conducted in either English or Italian.
The course will run with a minimum of 10 participants and a maximum of 20. Registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Once the minimum number of participants has been reached, the Booking Office will confirm the activation of the course.
You can register until 14 June 2025 via our online portal by clicking on the red button “CHOOSE AND BOOK” >>>
Your registration will only be confirmed once the course fee has been paid. Payment must be made within 7 working days of the course activation notice, and no later than 14 June 2025.
No refunds will be given in the event of non-attendance or if the course is cancelled due to force majeure.
Should the course not take place due to force majeure, the organiser reserves the right to offer participants a rescheduled course, with the possibility of adjusting and/or modifying the programme, lecturers, organisation, and venue.
FEES
The cost is €340.00 per participant, VAT included.
The fee includes:
The fee does not include:
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INFORMATION
MUVE Academy
muveacademy@fmcvenezia.it
Tel. +39 041.2405211