Verso la fondazione della Scuola Superiore di Commercio

At the end of the Austrian domination, the city of Venice lived in a critical situation characterized by an elevated rate of poverty and a dramatic lack of trades. In the years between 1866 and 1868, aiming to improve the Italian commercial activities and to restore the city to its former glory, a group of venetian delegations supported the establishment of a ‘Scuola superiore di commercio’ in Venice, that was officially founded in 1868. The School was realized in order to become a national and european model of high studies, educating students on the field of economics and commerce and introducing them at the careers as experts, consuls or professors. Through the articles published on the Gazzetta di Venezia in 1868, the essay retraces a complete report of the most important events and negotiations that brought to the opening of the School.

Sulla storia della fotografia attorno al 1868

Photography in Venice around 1868 was going through a period of great vitality. Mapping the main photographic studios, located mainly around St. Mark Square, includes indeed about a hundred operators who create images in various formats, from the large ‘imperial’ to the small ‘visiting cards’ with all the suggestions allowed by the existing techniques, from monochrome imbibitions to printing on pre-colored paper to the romantic ‘moonlight’ effect. From Antonio Perini to Carlo Ponti to Carlo Naya, these professionals trace a new path to the creation of images, inventing new tools and leaving evidence of fascinating views of the city of Venice, such as the one that portrays the R. Scuola Superiore di Commercio.

Diario di Elena

The diary of the fifteen-year-old Elena Pesaro Maurogonato traces the events in Venice between 1867 and 1868.

I teatri a Venezia nel 1868

In 1868 the theatrical context in Venice was affected by local abut also statal economic situation, due by the development of the new Italian State, formed after the Peace of Vienna that, signed on 23 October 1866, marked the end of the Third War of Independence and the annexation of Venice to the unitary state. Venice therefore became less important for theatrical production, and the city was no longer among the capitals of theatre and music, as it could have been considered until in the first half of 19th century. A new trend throughout Europe was moreover the ‘grand opera’, while in Venice the dominant show was still the traditional musical opera, in addition to opera and ‘opera buffa’, created by great Italian composers. The theatres active in 1868 in the city are La Fenice, Teatro San Benedetto then called Rossini, Teatro Apollo, Teatro Malibran and Teatro San Samuele. Through the reviews of the Gazzetta di Venezia and documents such as sketches of the scene made by famous set designers, that interesting moment is reconstructed.

«Perle sull’azzurro del cielo mille volte contemplate sull’onda»

In 1868 Félix Ziem, already known as peintre de Venise, made two trips to the city of the Doges in order to renew his art. From the drawings and notes of the two carnets he elaborated during these stays, the figure of a complex artist emerges, who pursues commercial success but also the motives of his own being, curious, a lover of the city and of local life, in many ways very different from that known through his most famous paintings.