Door from the Ca' Rezzonico, Venice
Dateca. 1760
Made in
Italian (Genoa)
Label TextWho are these people? The scene in the upper panel of the door presents a figure on horseback. Although he is dressed in the flowing robes and turban associated with the garb of a Middle Eastern pasha or an Indian mogul, his features are Caucasian—an example of exotic motifs that mixed Eastern costumes and accessories with European faces. The lower panel is a model example of chinoiserie depicting European interpretations of life in China: gentlemen with Chinese-style silk garments, hats, and long mustaches, placed in make-believe settings of unusual plants and pagoda-like buildings. Eighteenth-century palaces along the Grand Canal in Venice—like the Ca’ Rezzonico (now a municipal museum of decorative arts)—featured rooms painted and furnished in the Chinese manner.
Object number2014.17
ProvenancePalazzo Ca’Rezzonico, Venice, Italy; [Adolph Loewi, Venice, Italy, then Los Angeles, California by 1938]; John Yeon, San Francisco, California and Portland, Oregon, 1953-1994 (his death); by inheritance to Richard Louis Brown, Portland, Oregon, 1994-2014 (at Seattle Art Museum as loan from Mr. Brown since 1991); gift to Seattle Art Museum, 2014
Photo CreditPhoto: Elizabeth Mann
Exhibition HistoryLos Angeles, California, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, loan exhibition, 1939.
Detroit, Michigan, Detroit Institute of Arts, Venice, 1700-1800: an Exhibition of Venice and the Eighteenth Century, 1952.
Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Porcelain Stories: From China to Europe, February 17 – May 7, 2000. Text by Emerson, Julie, Jennifer Chen, and Mimi Gardner Gates. P. 202.
Portland, Oregon, Portland Art Museum, Quest for Beauty: The Architecture, Landscapes, and Collections of John Yeon, May 13 - Sep. 3, 2017.Published ReferencesMorazzoni, Guiseppe. Mobili Veneziani Laccati. Milan: L. Alfieri, 1954.
Huth, Hans. Europaische Lackarbeiten, 1600-1850. Darmstadt: Schneekluth, 1955.
Honour, Hugh. Chinoiserie: The Vision of Cathay. London: J. Murray, 1961, pl.77.
Collins, Jeffrey, review. "Porcelain Stories: From China to Europe," in Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 34, No. 1, Poetry and Poetics (Fall 2000), Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 116-120, p. 119.Credit LineGift of Richard Louis Brown, in honor of Julie Emerson
Dimensions111 3/8 x 56 x 2 1/8 in. (282.9 x 142.2 x 5.4 cm)
MediumWood, oil lacquer, gilt
Italian (Genoa)
early-mid 15th century, 1st half 15th century
Object number: 61.55
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