Teodoro Francesco Maria Gasparo Correr (12 December 1750,

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

- 20 February 1830, Venice) was a Venetian abbot and art collector, most notable as the founder of the

Museo Correr The Museo Correr () is a museum in Venice, northern Italy. Located in Piazza San Marco, St. Mark's Square, Venice, it is one of the 11 civic museums run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. The museum extends along the southside of the squar ...

Life

The

Correr The House of Correr or Corraro was a major Patrician (post-Roman Europe), patrician family in the history of the Republic of Venice. The family belonged to the Venetian nobility. History Said to have originated in Torcello, the family moved t ...

were an old patrician family in Venice. Teodoro's father was Giacomo and his wife, the Neapolitan noblewoman Anna Maria Petagno, daughter of Andrea, from the princely family of Trebisaccia. Teodoro was the first of nine brothers and aged ten was sent to school with the

Theatines The Theatines, officially named the Congregation of Clerics Regular (; abbreviated CR), is a Catholic order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men founded by Archbishop Gian Pietro Carafa on 14 September 1524. Foundation The order wa ...

at San Nicola da Tolentino. He only stayed there a year before moving to the San Cipriano college on

Murano Murano is a series of islands linked by bridges in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. It lies about north of Venice and measures about across with a population of just over 5,000 (2004 figures). It is famous for its glass making. It was o ...

, which he left aged twenty-one in 1771. Even as a youth he became interested in collecting objects and artworks relating to Venice and its history. When they reached twenty-five all Venetian patricians were required to take up minor magistracies and Correr reluctantly followed suit. In 1775 he entered the

Great Council of Venice Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" * Artel Great (bo ...

and the same year was elected . The following year he was made and in 1778 he was re-elected and made . In 1787 he was elected and captain of

Treviso Treviso ( ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 87.322 inhabitants (as of December 2024). Some 3,000 live within the Venetian wall ...

, but he immediately gained dispensation from taking up this office. In 1788 he became and procurator at

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

. He only half-heartedly held public office and finally eschewed it altogether by becoming an abbot in 1789. He even declined to serve in the Civic Guard on health grounds during the

Fall of the Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice was dissolved and dismembered by the French general Napoleon Bonaparte and the Habsburg monarchy on 12 May 1797, ending approximately 1,100 years of its existence. It was the final action of Napoleon's Italian campaign ...

in 1797 and instead paid a cash fine in monthly installments. After his parents died, he was able to commit himself to collecting full-time, though he had already begun forming a collection of paintings, relics and documents relating to Venetian history whilst still a young man. His collecting peaked during the years immediately after the Republic's fall and the resulting decision by many patrician families to sell off their whole art collections. Despite his limited means, he used his connections to other patrician families to buy and exchange paintings, coins, archaeology. majolica, glassware, books, engravings, gems, enamels, medals, curiosities, weapons, antiquities, bronzes and manuscripts. He installed his growing collection in his family palazzo in the San Giovanni Decollato district of the Santa Croce

sestiere A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the title of (). Formed a ...

In old age he wondered how to ensure his collection stayed together after his death, rather than being dispersed by his brother. He wrote his will on 1 January 1830, stipulating: This marked the beginning of Venice's city museums and formed the foundation stone for the current museum network in the city. Correr's collection formed the nucleus for the present-day Museo Correr, which moved in 1879 to the neighbouring Fondaco dei Turchi (now the Museo di Storia Naturale) then to the former Palazzo Reale (or Procuratie Nuovissime) on

Piazza San Marco Piazza San Marco (; ), often known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal Town Square, public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as ''la Piazza'' ("the Square"). The Piazzetta ("little Piazza/Square") is an ext ...

in 1922, where it still remains.

Selected works from the Correr collection

* Embriachi workshop, ''Wedding Chest'', mid 14th - early 15th centuries *

Pisanello Pisanello (), born Antonio di Puccio Pisano or Antonio di Puccio da Cereto, also erroneously called Vittore Pisano by Giorgio Vasari, was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance and Quattrocento. He was acclaimed b ...

, '' First medal of Lionello d'Este'', 1441 * Matteo de' Pasti, '' Medal of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta and Castel Sismondo'', 1446 *

Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 29 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father, ...

, '' Transfiguration'', 1455-1460 *

, ''

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

'', circa 1455-1460 * Cosmè Tura, ''

Pietà The Pietà (; meaning "pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Mary (mother of Jesus), Blessed Virgin Mary cradling the mortal body of Jesus Christ after his Descent from the Cross. It is most often found in sculpture. ...

'', 1460 *

Antonello da Messina Antonello da Messina (; 1425–1430February 1479), properly Antonello di Giovanni di Antonio, but also called Antonello degli Antoni and Anglicized as Anthony of Messina, was an Italian painter from Messina, active during the Italian Early Ren ...

, '' The Dead Christ Supported By Three Angels'', 1474-1476 *

Gentile Bellini Gentile Bellini (c. 1429 – 23 February 1507) was an Italian painter of the Venetian painting, school of Venice. He came from Venice's leading family of painters, and, at least in the early part of his career, was more highly regarded than his y ...

, '' Portrait of Doge Giovanni Mocenigo'', 1480 *

Vittore Carpaccio Vittore Carpaccio ( , , ; – ) was an Italian painter of the Venetian School (art), Venetian school who studied under Gentile Bellini. Carpaccio was largely influenced by the style of the early Italian Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina ...

, '' Two Venetian Ladies'', 1490 *

Jacopo de' Barbari Jacopo (also Iacopo) is a masculine Italian given name, derivant from Latin ''Iacōbus''. It is an Italian variant of Giacomo ( James in English). * Jacopo Aconcio (), Italian religious reformer * Jacopo Bassano (1592), Italian painter * Iac ...

, ''View of Venezia MD'', primi anni del 1500 * Nicola da Urbino, ''Maiolica service'', 1515

Bibliography (in Italian)

* Vincenzo Lazari, Notizia delle opere d'arte e d'antichità della raccolta Correr di Venezia, Venezia, Tipografia del Commercio, 1859, pp. III-IX, SBN IT\ICCU\RML\0082262. * Giovanni Mariacher, Il Museo Correr di Venezia. Dipinti dal XIV al XVI secolo, Venezia, Neri Pozza, 1957, pp. 9–14, SBN IT\ICCU\NAP\0101931. * Giandomenico Romanelli, CORRER, Teodoro Maria Francesco Gasparo, in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, vol. 29, Roma, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 1983. URL consultato il 04 dicembre 2017. * Giandomenico Romanelli, "Vista cadere la patria...". Teodoro Correr tra "pietas" civile e collezionismo erudito, in Bollettino. Civici musei veneziani d'arte e di storia, vol. 30, 1986 (1988), pp. 13–25. * Luisa Servadei, Michela Tombel (a cura di), Correr di San Giovanni decollato. Inventario dell'archivio (PDF), Venezia, 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Correr, Teodoro 1750 births 1830 deaths Italian abbots Italian art collectors Republic of Venice clergy Teodoro Museum founders Teodoro Venetian governors 18th-century Venetian people