VENICE - Bauer Palladio Hotel & Spa, Giudecca Island, Redentore

 

While in Venice I will be staying at the Bauer Palladio Hotel & SPA. It is an amazing building designed in the year 1500 by the world-renowned Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. It is one of his 18 surviving villas of the Veneto.  Here are a few books if you want to read up on the architecture of Palladio

 

It has a private garden (a rarity in Venice) 

                                                      

and breathtaking lagoon views (this is where I will be view the fireworks display on Saturday night.  Read more about that below)

 

Public areas have Venetian terrazzo floors, original open-brickwork walls, and antique furnishings; trelliswork stencils and Murano-glass lanterns.  It is located on the Giudecca Island just across the canal basin from Venice.

Map of the location of the Palladio Spa across from the main island of Venice

The Palladio was designed by Andrea Palladio in 1500

The Palladio today in 2008 

I will reach the property by taking the hotel's innovative B-Mare, a solar-powered shuttle between the main Hotel adjacent to Piazza San Marco, a mere 10-minute blissful vaporetto ride.

Setting an unprecedented example in eco-friendly efforts, the BAUER, Venice's first luxury hotel and one of the most prestigious family-run properties, has purchased a revolutionary energy-efficient nautical system for its new
Hotel Palladio. 
B MARE shuttle boat.

Created by Posidonia Srl and MW Lugano, leaders in Europe for their electric propulsion and solar-energy MW Line™ of boats, this electro solar powered system allows the B Mare vaporetto (Bauer of the Sea) to operate with no pollution, no noise, and no waves between the Bauer's main hotel near St. Mark's Square and the new Bauer Palladio Hotel & Spa on Giudecca Island, just across the lagoon.

Bauer Hotel Chair & CEO, Francesca Bortolotto Possati, is the first in Venice to make a substantial effort in providing clean-energy water transportation. Bortolotto Possati is a passionate Venetian who works tirelessly to maintain her birthplace and home as a top travel destination, and to prevent Venice's disappearance. "I feel it is my duty to help maintain and preserve the architectural integrity and atmosphere of this unique city for years to come," says Bortolotto Possati. "My family has lived in Venice for many generations and it is my goal to keep our city preserved to every extent possible."

There are 7 rooms on the second floor all with spectacular views of the lagoon, the Doge's Palace, and St. Mark's Square.

 

http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll/qscr=dspv/htid=1510712/crti=4/hotel-pictures

   

I thought this meeting room was interesting.  It is a little hard to see, but those are rows of Philippe Starck Ghost Chairs, a whole room of them!!!

 


I have just found out that I have an extra treat in store for me on this visit to Venice - I am there juring the Redentore, one of the Venetians' most treasured festivities which culminates in a spectacular firework display in the evening with the unbeatable backdrop of Saint Mark's Basin. A play of lights and reflections produce a kaleidoscope of colours with the silhouetted spires, domes and bell towers of the city behind.

All of which I will be able to view from my room across the Giudecca Canal!  I don't think it gets any better than that.

The origin of the festival was to celebrate the end to the plague, that raged through the city in the three years between 1575 and 1577.  Aided by the high density of the population, the disease spread through the city, causing terrible losses. Almost 50,000 died, which was more than a third of the city's inhabitants.

On September 4, 1576, the Senate decided that the Doge should announce the vow to erect a church dedicated to the Redentore (Redeemer), in return for help in ending the plague.

On July 13, 1577, the plague was declared definitively over and it was decided that the city's liberation from the terrible disease should be celebrated on the third Sunday in July.

The Redentore today
At sunset the well illuminated boats, decorated with boughs and coloured balloons, begin congregating in Saint Mark's Basin and the Giudecca Canal. In the boats people eat traditional food, waiting for the firework display, which begins at 11.30pm and lasts until after midnight.
The weekend ends with a Gondola Regatta


A few of the sites to see in Venice

The Rialto Bridge

St Mark's Square Campanile

Venetian Palace

Canal Scene

The Zattere: A Spacious Waterfront Promenade

The Zattere was constructed in 1519 as a landing stage for timber, but is now a waterfront promenade lined by a series of notable buildings and monuments.

The Zattere runs along virtually the entire southern shore of the Dorsoduro district of Venice. It offers superb views of the spectacular Palladian architecture on the island of Giudecca (That's where my Hotel is located)immediately to its south.

photo Wai Heng Chow - FOTOLIA

The westernmost point of the Zattere, known as the San Basilio, is named after a church, long since demolished, which was once located there.

The yellow-fronted Scuola dei Luganagheri, a few doors along, was formerly a sausage maker’s guild, but is now a restaurant, the only remaining evidence of its previous use being the two marble tablets either side of a statue of Saint Anthony.

 

Dorsoduro is one of six sestieri or districts of central Venice, and is located on the south-western side of town. It includes the long southern shore of Venice which faces over the water to the Giudecca.

It houses some of the most picturesque canals and palazzi, and some of the town's great art showcases, without the pretension and tourist traps that you might expect. It's a studenty area, home to Venice's Ca' Foscari University, and has more late-night drinking bars than the rest of Venice. The general vibe is artistic, youthful and relaxed.

Dorsoduro highlights

Accademia - Venice's great art gallery
Peggy Guggenheim Collection - modern art in an unusual palazzo on the Grand Canal.
Santa Maria della Salute - this church dominates several of Venice's most famous views.
Ca' Rezzonico - a museum of the 18th Century in the Grand Canal palazzo where Robert Browning died.
San Sebastiano - a colourful church decorated almost entirely by Paolo Veronese, who is also buried here..
The Zattere - a long promenade along Venice's southern shore, facing over the water to the Giudecca.
Church of the Carmini - large church with paintings by Lorenzo Lotto and Cima da Conegliano. The adjacent Scuola has a ceiling by Giambattista Tiepolo.

 

Very Cool Google Map of Venice

This is a fascinating Google Map of Venice and the surrounding vicinity, that I found on the Internet.  It is an overlay of photos.  Just click on the photo and you can see what that area looks like at ground level.  Click here to go to this amazing web-site.

  
My reading on the plane is the novel on the life of:  Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love, and Death in Renaissance Italy
This book was recommended to me by Albarosa, a reader of my Blog.  She recommended novel written by the author Maria Bellonci, but all I could find on short notice was by the author Sarah Bradford.
(BTW I wish the fashion of wearing a jewel on our forehead would come back into style)

Lucrezia Borgia who was married to Alfonso d'Este (Prince of Ferrara) in 1520.  You can read more about her
here. 
"Several rumors have persisted throughout the years, primarily speculating as to the nature of the extravagant parties thrown by the Borgia family. Many of these concern allegations of incest, poisoning, and murder on her part; however, no historical basis for these rumors have ever been brought forward, beyond allegations made by the rivals of the Borgias.  It is rumored that Lucrezia was in possession of a hollow ring that she used frequently to poison drinks"

"Lucrezia's father was the powerful Renaissance Valencian who later became Pope Alexander VI. Lucrezia's family  came to epitomize the ruthless Machiavellian politics and sexual corruption alleged to be characteristic of the Renaissance Papacy. Lucrezia was cast as a femme fatale, a role she has been portrayed in many artworks, novels and films."

Her life and the times she lived in makes for Juicy reading!!!

 

Portrait of a Woman by Bartolomeo Veneziano, traditionally assumed to be Lucrezia Borgia 

 

ciao

Carlo Mollino

Carlo Mollino is a real genius of modern architecture and furniture design in Italy. Carlo Mollino was born in Turin 1905; d Turin, 1973. He was trained as an architect, the son of the engineer Eugenio Mollino (1873-1953). He studied at the faculty of architecture of the Politecnico, Turin, graduating in 1931. Among early influences were the 'second Futurism' of the post-war period and a close friendship with the painter and scholar Italo Cremona (b 1905). At the beginning of his career Carlo Mollino collaborated with his father but also worked independently, producing such notable designs as the headquarters of the Confederazione degli Agricoltori (1933-4), Cuneo, and particularly the headquarters of the Societ? Ippica Torinese (1935-9) in Turin. In the latter Carlo Mollino interpreted the doctrines of Neo-plasticism* and Rationalism** with great freedom, adapting spatial, material and technical ideas with complete originality. His first experiments in furnishings also date from this period, including promotional stands, residential rooms and individual items of furniture.

I quote Carlo Mollino directly from his writing entitled "Architettura, spazio creato" (Architecture, Created Space): "Only when a work is not explainable other than in terms of itself can we say that we are in the presence of art. This ineffable quality is the hallmark of an authentic work. Whoever contemplates it receives a "shock" that is unmistakable and, above all, unexplainable - a shock that he or she will try in vain to explain in rational terms. There are no reasons. If there were, we would have a way to build a convenient machine for making art through logic and grammar....." Carlo Mollino

---

Furniture Design

A world record price for a piece of 20th Century Furniture was set in June 2005 when a piece designed by Carlo Mollino was auctioned by Christie's New York in June 2005. An oak and glass table by Carlo Mollino for Casa Orengo, 1949 sold for $3,824,000.00

In the 1940s and 50s there was an explosion of design in Milan that established the sleek, fashionable and modern image of Italian furniture. On the other side of that movement, coming out of Turin, was Carlo Mollino (1905-1973), working from natural and animal shapes-- tree branches, animal horns, the curve of the human body-- to establish the "streamlined surreal" series of furniture designs. These pieces, evolved from an appreciation for the shapes of Art Nouveau and the architect Antoni Gaudi, were more expressive, and often more sculptural, than those being produced in Milan at the same time. The changes in his style over the years responded to the evolving technology of bending and working with wood.

He (Carlo Mollino) interpreted the doctrines of neo-plasticism* and rationalism** of the period with great freedom, adapting spatial, material and technical ideas with complete originality. The figure or the form of the human body is an element which is always present in Mollino's designs.

The furniture that Carlo Mollino designed was often one-off pieces produced specifically for the client whose house he was decorating. so many of his pieces are very rare today. His large range of prototype furnishings were made in the studio of Apelli and Varesio in Turin.

Carlo Mollino - 1950Apelli and Varesio Studio in Turin

Below are some furniture designs by Carlo Mollino:

1940 Carlo Mollino chair for Lisa et Gio Ponti

1944 Carlo Mollino Armchair for the Minola house. Reissued as model "Ardea"

1946 Carlo Mollino desk

1946 Carlo Mollino desk

1948 Carlo Mollino "Casa Orengo" chair

1949 Carlo Mollino "Arabesco" low table - plywood and glass

1952 Carlo Mollino "Gilda" armchair

1954 Carlo Mollino Gilda armchair

1954 Carlo Mollino wood table for the Pavia restaurant

1959 Carlo Mollino chair for the "Lutrario" ballroom

---

Interior Design

Carlo Mollino began producing furniture, like his 1937 "Milo" mirror, shaped like the Venus de Milo, and designing interiors, like the Miller House (1937). Carlo Mollino's interiors during this period were characterized by their use of draped fabric to divide a room and by the use of sensuous upholstery like padded velvet. The Miller house also had an innovative lighting system, a mounted fixture on a track, which curved around the ceiling. Carlo Mollino's other well-known interior was for the Minola house in 1944. The pieces he created for them included a radio-gramophone and a small glass table.

Carlo Mollino - Casa Miller 1937

Carlo Mollino - Milo Mirror 1937
courtesy Museo Casa Mollino - Torino

Carlo Mollino - La Casa e l'ideale - Per la rivista Domus,

Carlo Mollino - 1943 Casa Ada e Cesare Minola - Interno - Torino, Italia, 1944

---

Photography

Carlo Mollino was also an outrageous photographer. Each shoot was a sort of ceremony, he incessantly controlled every aspect of these remarkable images - although the negative, that is born perfect, for him does not exist. Carlo Mollino made use of retouching techniques in order to create a certain fantasy he had already constructed in his mind's eye. "everything is allowed, imagination is always saved" wrote Carlo Mollino.

Carlo Mollino photography

---

Casa Mollino

In 1960, on the Po river in Turin, Mollino took possession of a villa, the 'warrior’s house of rest'. The magically surreal and mystical flat that Carlo Mollino occupied during the last fourteen years of his life, was a place away from the luxurious apartment Carlo Mollino shared with his devoted housekeeper, but he never spent a single night there. Mollino's purpose may now be obvious: it was known to him that kha decorated his own future tomb in his spare time, and that’s what Carlo Mollino did with his18th century apartment. Casa Mollino is his private pyramid. An eclectic space, carefully created by his own aesthetic sense, made up of reminiscences of his life that appear among mirrors, lace curtains and velvet. The apartment was Carlo Mollino’s physical space of eternity, decorated only with things to be taken along and accompanied by spiritual messages. Today, Casa Mollino is owned by Fulvio and Napoleone Ferrari, who recreated the original state of the interiors. Open to the public by appointment only.

Carlo Mollino - Casa Mollino

Carlo Mollino - Casa Mollino

Carlo Mollino - Casa Mollino

Above photos: Inside Carlo Mollino's Casa Mollino

* Neo-Plasticism was an art movement that came during the years between the two World Wars and to some extent, was an reaction on the part of their founders to the irrationality and chaos of "the war to end all wars." Neo-plasticism sought to impose upon art a sense of careful, compositional, and chromatic order. It was an austere exploration of design elements to the exclusion of all else. Neo Plasticism was the brainchild of Piet Mondrian. Artists such as van Doesburg, Severini, Lissitzky, and Arp teamed with the Bauhaus school, hoping to see adopted a universal language of art, and its integration into every aspect of daily life. The movement worked (with considerable success) to influence everything from painting to architecture, furniture design, interior design, consumer products, advertising, and even urban planning. It was utopian. It was socialistic, and it had a strong influence in Germany. Ironically, though it collapsed in disarray amidst the turmoil of Hitler and the Second World War, it was not without influence amongst the utopian planners of the Third Reich.

** Rationalism The intellectual principles of Rationalism are based on architectural theory. Vitruvius had already established in his work De Architectura that architecture is a science that can be comprehended rationally. This formulation was taken up and further developed in the architectural treatises of the Renaissance. Progressive art theory of the 18th-century opposed the Baroque beauty of illusionism with the classic beauty of truth and reason.

Twentieth-century Rationalism derived less from a special, unified theoretical work than from a common belief that the most varied problems posed by the real world could be resolved by reason. In that respect it represented a reaction to historicism and a contrast to Art Nouveau and Expressionism.

For a more extensive post on Casa Mollino see: Carlo Mollino - Casa Mollino