Art lovers are in for a little buona fortuna as the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) presents “A Life of Seduction: Venice in the 1700s” this Carnival season. Along with a dazzling display of pageantry, ceremony and extravagance of 1700s Venetian life inside the museum, Ferrari of Houston, in partnership with the Ferrari Club of America, will bring New Orleans’ first Concorso d’Eleganza, a parked parade of Ferrari sports cars, outside the museum as a continued celebration of the beauty, innovation and exquisite craftsmanship of Italian design.
On Saturday, Feb. 18, starting at 10:00 a.m., museum visitors will have a chance to view new and vintage Ferraris along Lelong Drive leading up to NOMA’s main entrance. Featured cars will include a 458 Challenge Race Car, a 488 GT3, a California T and the LaFerrari – one of the most valuable and exotic cars in the world.
“Collaborating with Ferrari of Houston provides NOMA with a unique opportunity to juxtapose the spectacle of 18th century Venice presented in ‘A Life of Seduction: Venice in the 1700s’ with the sleek elegance of modern Italian design,” Susan M. Taylor, The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director at NOMA, said.
The event is free and open to the public, and local and regional Ferrari Club members are also encouraged to attend. Annual NOMA memberships for all participating Ferrari owners will be donated by Franco Valobra and Robert Lupo, members of the Ferrari Club of America.
“For decades, Ferrari is and has been the most iconic symbol of Italian design and style,” Valobra said. “It is most appropriate to showcase the best examples of the ‘Cavallino Rampante’ in the spectacular setting of the New Orleans Museum of Art where design and style always have and always shall reign supreme. The Ferrari community is excited to enthusiastically support the efforts of NOMA to continuously offer outstanding and culturally significant exhibitions to our city.”
Ferrari’s profits soared last year by 38 percent. The luxury Italian sports carmaker reports last year sales rose 4.6 percent to 8,014 vehicles, while net revenues increased 9 percent to $3.28 billion dollars. In 2017, Ferrari projects revenues to exceed $3.49 billion dollars.
NOMA reps said interest will also soar for their new exhibit including 300-year-old Carnival masks, costumes, robes, shoes, handbags and regal glass objects displayed among paintings by Canaletto, Francesco Lazzaro Guardi and Joseph Heintz the Younger.
“It is with great pleasure that NOMA brings this remarkable exhibition to our public,” NOMA’s Taylor said. “Venice is presented through an elegant, multi-disciplinary installation featuring an exceptional selection of objects, costumes and paintings that illuminate an extraordinary time in the history of Venice. It is our hope that visitors will be inspired by the focus on festivals, pageantry and ceremony that present parallels between Venice and New Orleans.”
NOMA is the only museum in the U.S. to showcase this collection of Venetian grandeur and will be available to view through Sunday, May 21. Originated at NOMA, the exhibition is organized by Contemporanea Progetti and guest-curated by Giandomenico Romanelli, the former director of the Civic Museums of Venice.
“A significant strength of this exhibition is its historical and cultural point of view and the distinctive range of objects that tell the story,” NOMA’s Senior Research Curator for European Art Vanessa Schmid said.
Four themes are explored throughout the show including “A City That Lives on Water,” “The Celebration of Power,” “Aristocratic Life in Town and Country” and “The City as Theater.”
Venetian Carnival, culture, festivals and celebrations are depicted on canvas. Model Gondolas illustrate the craftsmanship and whimsy of canal life and travel. Ceremonial regalia, costumes, silk waistcoats, gloves, handbags, furnishings and rare Venetian glass portray the fanciful trappings of palace and country living. Venice’s rich history of theater and opera are represented through paintings, decorative arts and a full-scale puppet theater lent by the Casa Goldoni of Venice especially for this exhibition.
“A Life of Seduction: Venice in the 1700s” is sponsored by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Catherine Burns Tremaine, Tina and Robert Hinckley, Sally E. Richards and Tia and Jimmy Roddy. Additional support is provided by Proforma Key Solutions.
“Women's Regatta on Grand Canal in Venice” by Gabriel Bella (1730-1799)
