Palazzo Venier dei Leoni: Home of the Peggy Guggenheim Art Collection
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The Peggy Guggenheim Museum: photo by "TheRunnerUp": GNU Free Documentation License, version 1.2.
The intention was
that the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal should be a
magnificent neo-classical palace. However, the construction work never
progressed beyond the first storey.
The original design was for a huge triple-arched reception hall which
would have supported two further tiers of arches on the second and third
floors. The architect, Lorenzo Boschetti, wished to create an imposing
central facade set-off by a symmetrical arrangement of windows and
colonnades.
However, the grand triple arch never progressed beyond the two massive
columns, now completely covered in ivy, which stand at the main entrance
to the palazzo.
It is uncertain why the project was abandoned in 1774. It is possible
that work ceased due to a lack of funds, or that the powerful Correr
family, whose ancestral seat overlooked the site, objected to the
design.
The most likely reason is that the intended depth of the foundations
would have caused structural damage to adjoining buildings.
It is also unclear why the palace became known as the “House of the
Lions”. Although several sculptures of howling lions decorate its
facade, this is not unusual in Venice, and so it seems more likely that
the palace acquired its name because a pet lion was once kept in its
grounds.
The palazzo used to belong to Peggy Guggenheim, the first wife of the
German impressionist Max Ernst, and the niece of the mining tycoon,
Samuel Guggenheim. It was acquired after her death by the Solomon R.
Guggenheim Foundation, and is now an art museum.
The gallery is far smaller than the other Guggenheim museums in New
York, Berlin, Bilbao, and Las Vegas. It mainly consists of Peggy
Guggenheim’s own personal collection and so reflects her particular
idiosyncratic tastes rather than any general unifying theme.
Since Peggy Guggenheim was married to a major 20th century artist, it is
hardly surprising that her collection should contain numerous works by
his friends and contemporaries such as Picasso, Dali, and Pollock.
"Angel of the City" by Marino Marini, Peggy Guggenheim, Venice
The best known
exhibit is probably the "Bird in Space" sculpted as part of a series by
Constantin Brancusi in 1923. However, the most notorious is undoubtedly
the “Angel of the City”, a statue of a naked man riding a horse in a
state of arousal, which is located at the main entrance in full view of
the Grand Canal.
Marino Marini, who completed the statue in 1948, was ordered to use a
detachable penis that could be removed to spare the blushes of passing
young ladies. However, this detachable penis has now been welded in
place in order to prevent its theft.
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