After going back to the "portego", you went up to the second floor, which opens onto a gallery decorated with large paintings by Venetian masters from the 1700s, of course. And if you've never seen his work before, it's time to get acquainted with Canaletto, who managed to capture the city's atmosphere and put it onto canvas like nobody else. His real name was Giovanni Antonio Canal, and he has painted hundreds of landscapes capturing every beloved angle and perspective of Venice. His works were mainly aimed at international travelers, and for this reason, ironically, were rare in Italy and especially in Venice itself!
After Canaletto, another genius of 18th-century painting awaits you in a room that collects thirty small canvases: I'm talking about Pietro Longhi. With an extraordinary sense of humor and curious vivacity, Longhi was specialized in scenes of everyday life. In his paintings that are set mostly inside buildings, you'll find an extraordinary repertoire of costumes, characters, and situations that seem to turn the world into a stage. Out of all of them, I'd like to point out The Rhinoceros, which shows the animal exposed in a pavilion in front of an astonished audience. If you look up at the ceiling, you'll see a painting by Giambattista Tiepolo.
After the Hall of Lacquers with its furniture decorated with gold and green according to a Venetian technique which incorporates the international taste for "chinoiserie", you'll reach the Alcove Room, and find yourself in the intimacy of a noble family. All around you this room remains as it once was, including every furnishing detail and decoration. And it's not over: yet another surprise awaits on the the other side of the "portego". It's the perfect reconstruction of one of the famous inland villas from a recreational area of the Brenta River; more specifically it's the Tiepolo family's villa, full of wonderful paintings. For once, the artwork was not commissioned; in fact Giandomenico, son and collaborator of the more famous Giambattista, painted these frescoes for himself and his family. They are peaceful images, but you can also sense a vein of melancholy, almost a premonition of the end of the Republic of Venice, like in the famous series of scenes depicting the games of Pulcinella.
FUN FACT: your journey through time continues on the third floor as well, where you can enjoy a delightful puppet show and find yourself in a period pharmacy, complete with furniture, vases, objects, shelves... and even a back room!
