iGuzzini illuminates the Selva - Lazzari salons

iGuzzini illuminazione, an international leader in the field of architectural lighting and a member of the Fagerhult Group, continues its commitment to enhancing cultural heritage by putting its know-how and technological solutions at the service of the prestigious Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia (Venice Academy Museum).

In the monumental Selva-Lazzari rooms on the ground floor of the Museum, a unique and extraordinary exhibition of seventeenth and eighteenth-century Venetian and Veneto painting opens today. These rooms are part of the major restoration project, completed in 2013 under the supervision of Tobia Scarpa and the Director of Works Renata Codello, that restructured the functional design of the entire ground floor of the museum. This precious selection of 63 works is strongly representative of Venetian and Veneto painting in these two centuries and includes works that have never been exhibited before and have been specifically restored for this exhibition. The project’s private sponsors include Venetian Heritage, the main partner, Intesa Sanpaolo, a number of companies from the Italian Stock Exchange and iGuzzini, the technical lighting sponsor.

To light the exhibition route, a completely renewed LED technology system has been specifically designed by Carlo Pallieri with the support and technical solutions of iGuzzini illuminazione. This system not only enhances the works on display but also makes the layout of the exhibition more flexible and enjoyable. To meet the numerous lighting challenges of this particular location, warm white luminaires with a high colour rendering index, installed on wall-mounted tracks and offering a wide range of optics and accessories have been installed as they are able to enhance the colours of these masterpieces and satisfy the various layout requirements.

To light the two rooms, which are both large and high with minimalist surfaces characterised by large columns, round View Opti Beam Lens projectors with a medium-sized, 126 mm-diameter body have been chosen. These include a built-in dimmer for manual dimming, interchangeable spot, medium and flood optics and a series of accessories that have enabled the most effective light emission to be created for each individual painting. For certain paintings, 51 mm diameter Palco Low Voltage luminaires have been used. These include La Parabola del banchetto di nozze by Bernardo Strozzi, Santa Caterina si rifiuta di adorare gli idoli by Sebastiano Mazzoni and La Parabola delle Vergini sagge e delle Vergini stolte by Padovanino.

The lighting system for the Selva-Lazzari rooms in the Gallerie dell’Accademia is the latest art and culture project in Venice that iGuzzini has taken part in. With particular reference to the Venetian schools, iGuzzini illuminazione has contributed to the lighting system designed by Studio Passetti Lighting for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, the lighting system designed by Alberto Torsello for the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, and the lighting system designed by Alberto Ongaro for the Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Giustizia e di San Girolamo, the home of the Ateneo Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti (Venetian Institute of Science, Literature and the Arts).

The project is part of the Light is Back programme through which iGuzzini contributes actively, with light, to enhancing and safeguarding cultural assets. The programme that was launched in the 1990s has recently provided lighting for masterpieces, such as the Legend of the True Cross by Piero della Francesca in Arezzo, the Pontifical Sanctuary of the Holy Stairs in Rome, Tintoretto’s paintings at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, Michelangelo’s Pietà, the Museum of the Dancing Satyr in Mazara del Vallo, the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, and Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper in Milan.

“The new rooms at the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice are a virtuous example of the collaboration between the public and private sectors that has enabled us to exhibit to the public numerous works that were previously locked away in archives. This is a museum within the museum offering a unique and extraordinary exhibition experience.”
The Honourable Dario Franceschini
Minister of Culture

“Today, safeguarding and enhancing Italy’s cultural heritage means, above all, constructing networks, relationships and synergies between organisations and institutions. We can only achieve ambitious goals by working together. Redesigning the layout of the Academy Museum is part of this perspective and a real best practice for our work.”
Prof. Massimo Osanna
Director General of Musei MiC

“Opening around 700 sqm of new exhibition rooms, dedicated to seventeenth and eighteenth-century painting is a moment of exceptional importance for the Academy Museum in Venice. It is part of the overall redefinition of the exhibition route that we are redesigning with all our staff and is also the museum’s fourth scientific layout. This event closes the exhibition loop on the ground floor, dedicated to the XVIIth - XIXth centuries. It displays highly prestigious works, some of which have never been seen or admired in their current state and are often the result of lengthy restoration projects. It is an almost exhaustive cross-section of the main actors and the most relevant artistic phenomena of this period in Venice and the Veneto region. It is an important piece of the jigsaw that completes our knowledge of art and integrates the rich and certainly better-known sections of the museum. The opening of a room dedicated to seventeenth century painting is configured as a “critical compensation” as the scant past consideration for this century, connected to the lack of space in the museum (solved by the acquisition of the rooms on the ground floor), meant that, in previous layouts, the works from this century were sacrificed in favour of the enhancement of other artistic periods.”
Giulio Manieri Elia
Director of the Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia

“The operation fully combines the enhancement and preservation of our national artistic heritage and is a virtuous example of the collaboration between the public and private sectors. In continuity with the exhibition layouts in the first four rooms on the ground floor of the museum, financed by Venetian Heritage in 2015, we decided to sponsor a permanent exhibition in the Selva-Lazzari rooms as well as the restoration of important artworks, like La Deposizione di Cristo dalla Croce by Luca Giordano, L’Indovina by Giambattista Piazzetta, L’Erminia e Vafrino by Gianantonio Guardi and Il Castigo dei Serpenti by Tiepolo. The last project is dedicated to the memory of Larry Lovett, the founder of Venetian Heritage.”
Toto Bergamo Rossi
Director of Venetian Heritage

“We are extremely happy to have helped create this project as it confirms our commitment to the research and development of solutions that enhance locations of inestimable historical, artistic, cultural and social value, like the Gallerie dell’Accademia. For us, light is a tool for social innovation, and we have always put our light culture at the service of the universal value of beauty, in Italy and all around the world, for the benefit of everyone.” Cristiano Venturini
Chief Executive Officer iGuzzini illuminazione