Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Third Floor Rooms

This room which invites you to share isabella stewart gardner s love for venice takes its name from the painting on the ceiling.

Isabella stewart gardner museum third floor rooms.

The gothic room was closed to the public during isabella stewart gardner s lifetime. While the rest of the city drank and partied and drank some more he and another guard randy hestand took turns patrolling the empty rooms of what had. The rape of europa by venetian renaissance painter titian from whom this room takes its name dominates the space. Each room is a masterpiece and together they create a work of art the sum of isabella stewart gardner s life s work.

Isabella stewart gardner museum in boston. Its function as an active sacred space persists to this day. Every april as specified in isabella s will a memorial service honors her memory. Before 1915 this room served as an apartment for isabella stewart gardner s guests including john singer sargent okakura kakuzo and matthew stewart prichard.

She was a friend of noted artists and writers of the day including john singer sargent james mcneill whistler dennis. The chapel at the far south end of the long gallery houses a consecrated altar that was used by isabella stewart gardner a devout anglo catholic for the celebration of mass. A far cry from the italian palazzo like aesthetic she employed in the raphael room or titian room here she turned to another style near to her heart. Isabella stewart gardner herself left specific instructions about how the museum should be maintained upon her death.

An opulent spectacle of baroque textiles and rococo furniture surrounds it. It later became isabella s private reception room. Isabella stewart gardner april 14 1840 july 17 1924 was a leading american art collector philanthropist and patron of the arts she founded the isabella stewart gardner museum in boston. Isabella stewart gardner had the main stairwell from the courtyard to the second and third floors painted bardini blue the iconic color favored by the florentine gallery owner stefano bardini.

With a mixture of devotional and domestic objects it served as a private refuge for isabella and a few very close friends. Gardner possessed an energetic intellectual curiosity and a love of travel. In 1899 while construction of the museum was well under way isabella acquired the coronation of hebe then attributed to veronese. Against this vivid backdrop she positioned a number of architectural fragments sculptures and other decorative elements made of different materials including wood metal and stone.

Deeply personal arrangements also form an integral part of this room s ensemble. Gardner commissioned gilded paneling in milan to frame the work in appropriate splendor.