Palazzo Grimani
Residence of the Grimani family since the 16th cent., the museum exhibits antiquities in carefully restored rooms, incl. the original Tribuna for the display of classical sculptures.
For an optimal view of our website, please rotate your tablet horizontally.
Giovanni Grimani (1506-1593) was a passionate and knowledgeable collector, influenced by the great interest in the arts that his family always had. His most valuable sculptures were exhibited in the extraordinary hall conceived for this purpose known as the "Chamber of Antiquities" or the Tribuna. Originally housing more than 130 ancient sculptures, the Tribuna was the room where Patriarch Giovanni received his illustrious guests. The walls have niches and shelves for holding statues and busts. The vaulted and coffered ceiling (adorned with a pattern of recessed panels or lacunaria) is crowned by a central lantern that provides diffused lighting.
Since 2019, Palazzo Grimani houses the exhibition "Domus Grimani 1594-2019. The collection of classical sculptures reassembled in its original setting after four centuries," configured as a real rearrangement of some rooms of the palace, and in particular of the Tribuna. For this presentation, a large part of Giovanni's original collection of antiquities which he donated to the Serenissima Repubblica in 1587 (today part of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale) was brought back to Palazzo Grimani, and installed in an exhibition that intends to evoke the atmosphere of a sixteenth-century patrician residence.
© Photo: Haupt & Binder, Universes in Universe
Residence of the Grimani family since the 16th cent., the museum exhibits antiquities in carefully restored rooms, incl. the original Tribuna for the display of classical sculptures.