CROSATO, Giovanni Battista
(b. ca. 1685, Treviso, d. 1758, Venezia)

Ceiling decoration

1753
Fresco
Ca' Rezzonico, Venice

In Venice, where the interior layout of palaces oriented toward the water had not fostered the development of galleries, it was the traditional portego that functioned as the great hall. It was only in the eighteenth century that large ballrooms were created. A splendid example is in the Ca' Rezzonico, designed by Giorgio Massari and decorated by Giovanni Battista Crosato and Pietro Visconti. Here the glorification of the Rezzonico family is entrusted to a huge painted coat of arms with elaborate framing decor, the first object one sees on entering the room. framed as a ceiling, depicts Apollo on the sun-chariot, Aurora, and personifications of the four continents.