January 20 > August 26, 2018
Venice, Museum of Palazzo Mocenigo
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After the radical restyling and expansion of the exhibition spaces in 2013 to include the new museum itineraries dedicated to perfume, the layout on the first floor of the Palazzo Mocenigo Museum has been remodelled to accommodate a splendid selection of Eastern fabrics and garments, the property of the Fondazione di Venezia and specifically part of the collections at Palazzo Mocenigo’s Centre for the History of Textiles and Costume.
The display is a further focus on the ever-present and topical theme of the relationship between Venice and the East and enhances the museum’s itinerary with a spectacular array of original clothes and accessories. Venice has always been in contact with the East, and more than one member of the Mocenigo family – one of the most important and prestigious Venetian aristocratic dynasties – contributed to maintaining and advancing this important commercial and cultural exchange.
Today at Palazzo Mocenigo this chapter of Venetian history is amplified by the display of twenty or so of the most representative examples from the museum’s splendid collection of over four hundred artefacts, which includes both Eastern and Western clothes, fabrics and religious vestments belonging to the maternal family of Mariano Fortuny.
The nucleus is of particular interest because it was a constant source of inspiration for Fortuny himself in his activities as a fabric and fashion designer, and because it helps to visually reconstruct the ancient but never dormant link between Venice and the East.
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Curated by Chiara Squarcina