Geminiano Cozzi and Porcelain in Venice: exhibition at the Ca' Rezzonico Museum

In the fantastic Ca' Rezzonico Museum dating back to the 1700s in Venice there is a beautiful exhibition dedicated to one of the objects that best embodies the spirit and aesthetic of the 18th century: porcelain china.

Porcelain china long remained a secret of Chinese manufacturers, until the second decade of the 18th century, when it was reproduced at the Saxon court of Augustus il Forte. From here it gradually spread across Europe, despite desperate attempts to hide the formula!

The Venice Republic was the only state where, in the 18th century, four porcelain china factories, all for private initiative were built. One of these was that of Geminiano Cozzi (1728 - 1798), born in Modena but Venetian by election, which the Ca ' Rezzonico exhibition is dedicated to.

Cozzi opened his factory in 1765, and it flourished for a long time, producing crockery and tables for  tea and biscuits (a matt, hard, white porcelain, and similar to that used for marble statuettes, usually shepherd representatives  of Arcadia), for the major Venetian noble families and others – there are in fact pieces with coats of arms.

On show at Ca 'Rezzonico Museum, there are over six hundred pieces from Italian and foreign museums, including a few dated specimens that are usually kept in private collections and until now have been difficult to be given access to the public and scholars. These include biscuit figurines, board services that mimic the ceramics of Japanese manufactures, or with views of the Veneto villas, but also statues of Chinese deities with caricature function!

Geminiano Cozzi and his porcelain exhibition (19 March to 12 July 2016) is open to visitors with the normal entrance ticket at Ca' Rezzonico Museum and can be included in our private guided tours of the of 18th Century Venetian Museum.