Day 178 - Ca' Sagredo bed chamber

August 19, 2019

Gallery 507 is described as a bed chamber from the Ca' Sagredo dating from 1718, although as a sign in the previous gallery explains, the room might well have functioned as a reception room rather than a bedroom. It's certainly impressive enough in its proportions to be a reception room -- perhaps 40' X 25', with a raised area holding the bed along with an armchair with a gilded wood frame and maroon velvet (?) back and seat. The walls are covered with a patterned silk that appears in the dim light (there are three leaded glass windows) to be of a tan or perhaps light olive color. The bed has a curving Baroque headboard and is covered with a patterned rose-colored silk spread; the same, or a similar, fabric appears on the headboard. Flanking the door are two identical mirrors whose gilded frames are shaped like shields, which hang over two identical marble console tables with curving fronts and gilded legs. The room also has a tall painted secretary desk.  It's grand, but all so harmonious that it doesn't seem excessive.

I hope it functioned as a bedroom, because the room's most distinctive feature are 28 stucco putti that line the ceiling and frame the raised area where the bed is situated.The chubby bodies of the putti are shown in a variety of positions (although a few look like they might have come from the same mold, or mirror-image molds) and are surrounded by swirling lengths of cloth and by garlands of leaves and flowers. Above all, the putti look like they're having fun! Their playfulness is a great invitation to sex - how could you lie on that bed and not think about having just as good a time? 

My first sense of this room is that it's another dubious acquisition by the museum. (I hear an Italian woman comment, "L'hanno rubata"; her male companion responds,  "No, no, l'hanno comprata.") It  occupies a lot of floor space, and it's so dark that you can't read the placards about the furnishings. Most  people pass it right by. But I change my mind because the comments I hear indicate that, for those who do discover the room, it's an unexpected treat.  One woman asks her child, "How would you like this bedroom?" Another remarks, "I guess I haven't done much [by way of decor] in my bedroom." In this way our worlds are expanded.