Ca' Rezzonico (Italian pronunciation: [ˈka (r)retˈtsɔːniko]) is a palazzo and art museum on the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro sestiere of Venice, Italy.

It is a public museum dedicated to 18th-century Venice (Museo del Settecento Veneziano) and one of the 11 venues managed by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia.

In 1649 the head of the family, Filippo Bon, a Procurator of the city and patron of the arts, decided to transform the two houses into a single large palazzo on the site.

[2] A Canaletto painting of the early 18th century[3] shows only the ground floor and first piano nobile completed, and a temporary roof protecting the structure from the elements.

Turning his attention to the interior, Massari broke with Venetian custom and put the major ceremonial room at the back of the building, not overlooking the canal.

[5] Fifty years after the completion of the palace, in 1810, the last member of the Venetian branch of the Rezzonicos, cardinal Abbondio of Pisa, died, bringing an end to the family line.

[5] Beginning in about 1850, the second floor of the palace was rented by the antiquarian and art dealer Jacobo Querci della Rovere, who used it as a gallery to sell paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Canaletto, and other old masters.

In 1906 Browning received an offer from the German Emperor, Wilhelm II, to buy the building, but sold it instead to Count Lionello von Hierschel de Minerbi [it], a deputy of the Italian parliament and a collector of modern art.

After four years of negotiations, in June 1935 the city of Venice purchased the Palazzo and began to transform it into a museum of Venetian art from the 18th century.

From the ground floor, visitors climb to the Piano Nobile by the staircase of honour, which has marble balustrades decorated with statuary by Giusto Le Court.

This room, created by Massari, is of double height, and appears even higher because of the trompe-l'œil architecture painted on the walls and ceiling by Girolamo Mengozzi Colonna (not by Pietro Visconti, as long believed).

[9] The centerpiece of the ceiling, painted by Giovanni Battista Crosato, depicts Apollo riding his carriage between Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

The paintings, particularly The Triumph of Poetry, date from the time when Tiepolo was working in the main salon, and are usually attributed to either Giambattista Crosato or Gaspare Diziani of Belluno.

Besides the throne, the other notable features of the room are the ceiling frescos, titled The Allegory of Merit, which were painted by Tiepolo and his sons in just twelve days.

The furniture in the room is also notable, particularly sculpted and gilded tables, mirrors and candlesticks, ornamented with statues of putti and figures representing the different virtues.

The room also displays paintings by Venetian artists, including Pietro Longhi, Francesco Guardi, and two early works in oval frames by Giambattista Tiepolo from 1715 to 1716.

The furnishings also pieces of Venetian baroque furniture, including a gaming table, and an ornate painted secretary, or cabinet, used to hold previous objects, made in Germany in the 18th century.

The room also features a very fine marquetry desk, inlaid with ivory and decorated with gilded bronze, by the ebenist Pietro Pifetti, signed and dated 1741.

The works displayed are dated 1706, and use different colored woods, including ebony, and extremely ornate baroque curves and twists to portray action and emotion.

Another large-scale depiction of the port The festival of Saint Martha by Gaspare Diziani, is also on display, along with several celebrated scenes of life in Venice during the period by Francesco Guardi.

Other Venetian artists whose works can be seen on this floor include Cima da Conegliano, Alvise Vivarini, Bonifacio de' Pitati; Tintoretto, Schiavone, the Bassano family, Paolo Fiammingo, Lambert Sustris; Padovanino and Carpinoni, Pietro Vecchia, Giovanni Segala, Palma il Giovane, Bernardo Strozzi, Francesco Maffei, Giovan Battista Langetti, Pietro Liberi; Balestra, Niccolò Bambini, Piazzetta, Nicola Grassi, Pietro Longhi, Rosalba Carriera, Sebastiano and Marco Ricci, Pellegrini, Amigoni, Antonio Marini, Zuccarelli, Zais, Giuseppe Bernardino Bison, Natale Schiavoni, Ippolito Caffi, Mancini, and Emma Ciardi.

In the corridor leading to the hall, on the left wall, a scene of the liberated Jerusalem of the Cup: "Renaud who abandons the Garden of Armida" by Giandomenico Tiepolo, who was on the ground floor of the villa from Zianigo.

Pulcinella was a standard character in Italian Commedia dell'arte since the 17th century, a figure for ridicule and satire; he wore a tall white hat and gown, a mask, and carried a club or long forks.

Another important Tiepolo work is displayed in tho section; the New World; a long fresco in the corridor which was originally on the ground floor of the Villa Zianigo, depicting a line of Venetians, including one in a Pulcinella costume with a long a fork, waiting to look into a magic lantern presentation, Promenade is said to show Tiepolo himself, to the right, looking at the scene ironically through his eyeglass.

These paintings were made between 1793 and 1797 at the Villa Zianigo, at the time of the first occupation of Venice by the French, and the beginning of downfall of the Venetian Republic, and its particular style of life and art.

The main figure in the paintings is Saint Jerome Émilien, depicted with handcuffs to represent his imprisonment in 1511 by soldiers of the Holy Roman Empire, and his liberation, according to the legend, through the intervention of the Virgin Mary.

Longhi appears in them as an insightful observer of forms and ways of life, submitting in detail the empty habits and pompous weaknesses of his heroes and their world.

The decoration of this piece (Sala delle Lacche Verdi) is a set of furniture painted green and gold, called Salotto Calbo-Crotta with chinoiserie motifs, very popular in Venetian eighteenth century.

It includes important works by Bernardo Strozzi, Francesco Maffei, Pietro Vecchia, the Tiepolos father and son, Giambattista Piazzetta, Gaspare Diziani, and other major Venetian masters.

[23] Other major works that can be seen on the top floor include the historical The Death of Darius by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta; and a collection of three portraits by Pietro Bellotti.