Palazzo Grassi

Palazzo Grassi, also known as Palazzo Grassi-Stucky, is a palace in Venice, located in the San Marco district (sestiere), overlooking the Grand Canal.

The palace is the last patrician residence built on the Grand Canal before the collapse of the Republic of Venice at the end of the 18th century.

SHORT HISTORY OF PALAZZO GRASSI

The land on which Palazzo Grassi stands today was purchased in several phases by the Grassi family between 1732 and 1745.

The work on the new building began in 1748, a fact confirmed by a document dating back to that year. The palace was completed in 1772, the year of Paolo Grassi’s death.

Between 1840 and 1875, due to the rapid and complete extinction of the Grassi family, the palace had four different owners.

In 1840, Palazzo Grassi was sold to the Venetian commercial company of Spiridione Papadopoli, and in 1844 to the opera tenor Antonio Poggi.

Almost immediately, Poggi sold the palace to the Hungarian József Agost Shöfft, an internationally renowned painter, and after his death the building was inherited by Giuseppina Lindlau, his second wife.

In 1857, the building was sold to a wealthy Greek financier, Baron Simone de Sina, who made some substantial changes to the general structure of the building.

To make the structure more stable, de Sina added four columns to the vestibule. He also had part of the 18th century decorations demolished and divided the ballroom on the first floor to obtain an antechamber, decorated by the Austrian painter Christian Griepenkerl.

In 1908, the heirs of Baron de Sina sold Palazzo Grassi to the Swiss industrialist Giovanni Stucky, who after his death in 1910 left the structure in the hands of Gian Carlo, his son, who installed lifts, electrical systems and heating.

In 1949, after passing into the hands of the Venetian entrepreneur Vittorio Cini, Palazzo Grassi was sold to the multinational company Snia Viscosa, of which Franco Marinotti, one of the most important Italian industrialists of the period, was the majority shareholder.

Starting with 1951, Marinotti founded and managed the International Center of Art and Costume. For this purpose, the garden was transformed into an open-air theater covered with a retractable roof, and the old floor was replaced with inlaid marble.

In 1978, the interest of the owners in the promotion and support of the exhibitions diminished, and they decided to sell the building.

In 1983, Fiat decided to buy Palazzo Grassi and to entrust the renovation work to the architect Gae Aulenti.

In 2005, the French entrepreneur François Pinault bought Palazzo Grassi to exhibit inside the palace his private collection of contemporary and modern works of art.

He entrusted the renovation and modernization of the structure to the Japanese architect Tadao Andō.

ARCHITECTURE OF PALAZZO GRASSI

The palace is characterised by two large facades, one facing the Grand Canal and the other facing Campo San Samuele.

The main facade, in clear Neoclassical style, hides a very complex and scenographic plan, inspired more by the Roman model than by the Venetian one.

In the center of the facade, a colonnaded courtyard opens up, similar to that of Palazzo Corner, which divides the structure into two parts – the front one houses four side rooms and a central hall, while the rear one contains smaller rooms and a sumptuous decorated staircase by Michelangelo Morlaiter and Fabio Canal.

The main facade is covered entirely in Istrian stone and has mullioned windows on the main floors. However, the windows on the first noble floor are rounded, while those on the second floor have alternating semi-circular and triangular tympanums.

The windows are separated by smooth pilasters with Ionic or Corinthian capitals.

The facade has a water portal which resembles a Venetian window (or Palladian window). On top, the facade is closed by a band with a corbelled cornice, which hides the attic.

The side facade, equally imposing, imitates the main one in style, proposing a Roman-inspired ground portal surmounted by a Venetian window. On the side facade, there are numerous single-lancet windows with or without a balcony, arranged in pairs.

HOW TO GET TO PALAZZO GRASSI

Palazzo Grassi is located about 2.7 kilometers on foot from the Santa Lucia railway station. The closest vaporetto stop is San Samuele, located near the palace, on the waterbus Lines 1 and 2.