Italian, Venice
Paneling from the Palazzo Morosini on Campo Santo Stefano, Venice: French Window (Porta finestra), 1760-1780
Painted and gilded wood, with gilded bronze handles, 241.5 x 116.5 cm (95 1/16 x 45 7/8 in.)
Two French wooden window panels that are mounted side by side on a light green wood background. Each is framed by a narrow, slightly raised, gilded border the centers of which are elaborately decorated. Within the gilded border, the wood background consists of an antiqued (raw wood showing through the paint), irregularly painted gilded border upon which delicate, small red flowers and green leaves linked by a thin green vine encircle the panel. Inside this gilded border, the wood background has been painted blue with a narrow darker blue outline which gives a sense of depth and sets off the large elaborate, gilded bronze handle affixed in the center. Each handle has three large bronze flowers with gilded centers and graceful bronze or gilded leaves flowing outward, occasionally studded with small flowers.
Little Salon
Commentary
With the exception of the Little Salon, Isabella Gardner did not purchase complete rooms or attempt to assemble period rooms. In 1897, she acquired interior paneling from the Palazzo Morosini in Venice, but her installation in the museum does not attempt to re-create a Venetian interior. Rather, the panels are often mounted in unorthodox ways, even placed upside down, or cut to form new pieces of furniture.