Ca’ Pesaro (International Gallery of Modern Art) | Venice

Commanding a majestic presence on the Grand Canal, Ca’ Pesaro is one of Venice’s most imposing Baroque palaces and today houses the Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna-the city’s foremost museum of modern and contemporary art. Its story weaves together grandeur, rebellion, and artistic evolution, capturing Venice’s passage from the splendor of the Republic to the restless creativity of the 20th century.

Architectural Masterpiece

Construction of Ca’ Pesaro began in 1628, commissioned by the powerful Pesaro family and designed by the architect Baldassare Longhena, whose style helped define Baroque Venice. The palace wasn’t completed until the early 18th century, long after Longhena’s death, when Gian Antonio Gaspari finally finished the project. The result is a monumental façade that rises directly from the Grand Canal-a rhythmic play of arches, columns, and sculptural reliefs that convey both elegance and weight.

Unlike the lacy Gothic façades of earlier Venetian palaces, Ca’ Pesaro projects authority: heavy rustication on the lower level, double rows of triple-arched windows, and lavish ornamentation that seems carved from stone and light alike. From the water, it feels both solid and theatrical, a statement of wealth and permanence.

From Noble Residence to Art Sanctuary

The Pesaro family inhabited the palace for generations, adorning it with marble staircases, frescoed ceilings, and vast salons worthy of ambassadors and cardinals. By the late 19th century, however, Venice had changed, and the building was purchased by Beatrice Monti della Corte-later Duchess Felicita Bevilacqua La Masa-a visionary patron who dedicated the palace to the advancement of modern art.

In 1902, she donated Ca’ Pesaro to the city on the condition that it become a space for young, independent artists-those ignored or rejected by the conservative Biennale exhibitions. Her bold idea turned the palace into a crucible of innovation, where new generations of painters, sculptors, and thinkers could challenge tradition.

The International Gallery of Modern Art

Today, the museum’s collection spans the 19th to the 21st centuries, arranged across the palace’s richly decorated floors. The first floor retains much of its original Baroque splendor-stucco ceilings, frescoes by Giambattista Pittoni and Giusto Le Court, and gilded ornamentation that frames the modern artworks in striking contrast.

Highlights of the permanent collection include masterpieces by Gustav Klimt, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani, Gino Rossi, and Umberto Boccioni, alongside works by lesser-known but influential Venetian modernists. Klimt’s Judith II (Salome), painted in 1909, gleams like a mosaic of sensuality and defiance-a perfect match for the palace’s golden interiors.

The upper floors host rotating temporary exhibitions featuring international artists and avant-garde movements. Sculptures, installations, and contemporary media works stand amid centuries-old marble-a vivid juxtaposition that reflects Venice’s continuing dialogue between past and present.

The Oriental Art Museum

Within the same complex, the Museo d’Arte Orientale occupies the palace’s top floor, displaying a vast collection of Japanese, Chinese, and Southeast Asian art gathered by Prince Enrico di Borbone in the late 19th century. Samurai armor, silk kimonos, lacquered screens, and intricate ceramics add another layer to the palace’s cultural depth, showing Venice’s historic fascination with the East.

A Living Reflection of Venice’s Spirit

Ca’ Pesaro is not a static museum but a living continuum-a place where Baroque architecture, modern expressionism, and global art coexist. The sound of footsteps echoing through its marble halls carries centuries of transition, from noble banquets to avant-garde exhibitions. Visitors who pause by the tall arched windows can look out over the Grand Canal, where gondolas glide past the very façade that once symbolized aristocratic power, now dedicated to the freedom of artistic imagination.

An Enduring Legacy

In every sense, Ca’ Pesaro embodies Venice’s genius for transformation. The palace that once mirrored the grandeur of its patrician owners now celebrates the revolutionary, the unexpected, and the modern. Its walls, once draped in ceremony, now breathe with color, defiance, and invention-proof that in Venice, beauty never dies; it simply changes form.