GUARANA, Jacopo

The decoration of the Music Room is divided into two parts, one dedicated to the world of allegories, the other to the real world. Apollo, the god of music, dominates the fresco on the back wall of the Room, which is splendidly laid out by Agostino Mengozzi Colonna in a manner that recalls the scheme employed by the elder Mengozzi Colonna to frame Tiepolo’s The Banquet of Cleopatra in the Palazzo Labia.

Apollo personally directs the orchestra of young girls (the “putte”) seated in his right. Next to him, dressed in yellow, Pasquale Anfossi (1727-1797), the opera composer who was then in charge of the Ospedaletto, conducts the chorus, holding a rolled-up musical score.

Guarana’s painting decorates the music room (Sala della Musica) of the Ospedaletto church. The room was used for concerts by the girls in the orphanage of Santa Maria Derelitti, an institution that offered an exceptional musical training, with teachers like the composers Domenico Cimarosa and Niccolò Porpora. Its all-female orchestra was however, less celebrated than that of the Conservatorio della Pietà, which was directed by Antonio Vivaldi.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 9 minutes):

Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto in C major RV 180 (Il Piacere, The Pleasure)

On the sheet music held by the solo singer one can still make out the initial phrases of Prince Demetrius’s aria in the opera Antigone, set to music by Pasquale Anfossi and performed for the first time in Venice in 1773 in the Teatro San Benedetto.

Notable detail is the young girl leaning out between the columns on the right who passes a ring-shaped cake to the dog standing below her on the faux steps.

The illusionistic invention of the painted grilles on the walls above the doors is remarkably effective. Through one of them, some of the young women can be glimpsed watching the concert with interest.

This is a study for the fresco commissioned by the Venetian Senate in 1767 as part of the redecorating of the Sala dei Banchetti, the most important public room in the doge’s apartments.

The Ospedaletto is the smallest of the four large hospitals that were built by the venetian government in the sixteenth century to care for the poor and the ill, who converged on the city in great numbers, seeking shelter from famine, war, and recurring plague. It was originally a simple, temporary wooden structure, but over time it was transformed into a grand building with its own church designed by Palladio and completed by Longhena. The restoration, renovation and expansion of the hospital continued in the eighteenth century, and the last project was the creation of the Music Room in 1777 by Francesco Patron.

The Music Room was built over the kitchens of the old hospital for music schools that entertained important guests. The Ospedaletto became famous for its choral group made up of the young orphan girls educated at the institute. The young girls sang in public concerts and in doing so hoped to win a rich husband.

Jacopo Guarana was entrusted with the decoration of the Music Room. The elegant trompe-l’oeil architecture that serves as a setting for Guarana’s scenes was created by Agostino Mengozzi Colonna, son of the renowned quadraturist Girolamo Mengozzi Colonna. The decoration of the space is divided into two parts, one dedicated to the world of allegories, the other to the real world. The ceiling contains a representation of the triumph of Music, while the back wall celebrates the true protagonists, the young women (or putte), who played music in the room every day.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 19 minutes):

Francesco Maria Veracini: Suite in F Major

The decoration of the Music Room is divided into two parts, one dedicated to the world of allegories, the other to the real world. On the ceiling, an elegant painted framework surrounds The Triumph of Music, who is shown seated amid the clouds, surrounded by other women holding musical instruments, while a small, winged putto brings her a laurel wreath. Fame and Apollo appear above her.

The frescoes in this airy portego were completed by Jacopo Guarana at the end of 1772; the chandeliers are from Murano.