The Chiara and Francesco Carraro Foundation: sustainability in the service of art

The Foundation is heralding a new era with its website, which it officially presented on 7 September. The project is the fruit of lengthy artistic research to create a platform that is easy to use and offers high quality, high value content.

The Chiara and Francesco Carraro Foundation, a valuable record for the future 

Kept in the rooms at Ca’ Pesaro since 2017, the Carraro Foundation's collection is one of the most valuable records of 19th-century decorative art. It takes in the wide range chosen first-hand by Chiara and Francesco Carraro.

'We left part of our collection to Venice and to the public,' explains Chiara Alessandri Carraro, wife of Francesco and art collector, 'so that our love of these unique pieces could be shared by all our visitors. We had been thinking about the Foundation for a long time, but I made the decision after Francesco died. The collections fit perfectly into the rooms at Ca’ Pesaro, complementing and bringing out the best in each other. In the rooms dedicated to us, visitors will see the passion that comes from an entire life in search of beauty.'

Thirty years of research, discovery and experience in collecting bring the two rooms at Ca’ Pesaro to life with the masterpieces of De Chirico, Morandi, Donghi, De Dominicis, Severini, Martini, Wildt, Tofanari, Quarti and Bugatti, as well as Zecchin, Bellotto, Barovier, Stella, Martinuzzi, Bianconi, Seguso and Scarpa.

Francesco Carraro's eye

“He was always on the Board of Directors at Carraro, even though he never held organisational office,' recalls Mario Carraro, Francesco's brother,'but his great passion was for painting and especially modern art.”

Francesco Carraro's interest in art began in the 1950s, when he went to Rome to study music. But his real love, Venetian glass, was a lucky personal coincidence. First attracted by French glass, his attention was soon caught by the Italian tradition in Murano.

Francesco Carraro's eye as a collector was all-consuming, global, insatiable and roved in every direction: from church to museum, house to palace, archaeological site to antique shop.

“He had the mind of a collector,' explains Chiara Alessandri Carraro.'He was methodical in spotting, waiting for and choosing the right piece, and knowing when to sell one piece of glass for something better. Straight away we understood that this passion would grow, although in different ways. Every piece was found, pursued, desired and selected, so that it could interact with the surroundings it would be placed in. First they were put in our house, whose size and structure could accommodate medium and large pieces. Now, luckily, they are all housed in the collection space at Ca' Pesaro.”

Francesco Carraro was a collector who wasn't content with just paintings, furniture and decorations. He had a more all-encompassing vision. He saw his house as an entire work of art.  Thanks to the Chiara and Francesco Carraro Foundation and its new website, everyone can now enjoy their astounding collection of 20th-century Italian decorative art.