Teodoro Francesco Maria Gasparo Correr (12 December 1750,

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

- 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 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 square on the upper ...

Life

The Correr family was 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 Teatini 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 on ...

, 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 High Council and the same year was elected 'savio' to the Orders. The following year he was made provider of the Pompe and in 1778 he was re-elected 'savio' and made provider of the Comun. In 1787 he was elected

Podestà Podestà (, English: Potestate, Podesta) was the name given to the holder of the highest civil office in the government of the cities of Central and Northern Italy during the Late Middle Ages. Sometimes, it meant the chief magistrate of a city ...

and captain of

Treviso Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and ''comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Veneti ...

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

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

. 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 fall of the Republic of Venice was a series of events that culminated on 12 May 1797 in the dissolution and dismemberment of the Republic of Venice at the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte and Habsburg Austria. In 1796, the young general Napoleon ...

in 1797 and instead paid a cash fine in monthly instalments. 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 (plural: ) is a subdivision of certain Italian towns and cities. The word is from (‘sixth’), so it is thus used only for towns divided into six districts. The best-known example is the ''sestieri'' of Venice, but Ascoli Piceno, Genoa, M ...

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 The Fondaco dei Turchi (Venetian: ''Fontego dei Turchi'', tr, Türk Hanı) is a Veneto-Gothic style palazzo, later on named as the Turks' Inn, on the Grand Canal of Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in nor ...

(now the Museo di Storia Naturale) then to the former Palazzo Reale (or Procuratie Nuovissime) on

Piazza San Marco Piazza San Marco (; vec, Piasa San Marco), often known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as ''la Piazza'' ("the Square"). All other urban spaces in the city (exc ...

in 1922, where it still remains.

Selected works from the Correr collection

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

Pisanello Pisanello (c. 1380/1395c. 1450/1455), 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 Quattroc ...

, '' 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 – 26 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 victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...

'', circa 1455-1460 * Cosmè Tura, ''

Pietà The Pietà (; meaning "pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus after his body was removed from the cross. It is most often found in sculpture. The Pietà is a specific form o ...

'', 1460 *

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

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

Gentile Bellini Gentile Bellini (c. 1429 – 23 February 1507) was an Italian painter of the 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 younger brother Giova ...

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

Vittore Carpaccio Vittore Carpaccio (British English, UK: Help:IPA/English, /kɑːrˈpætʃ(i)oʊ/, American English, US: Help:IPA/English, /-ˈpɑːtʃ-/, Italian: Help:IPA/Italian, itˈtoːre karˈpattʃo c. 1460/66 – 1525/26) was an Italians, Italian pai ...

, ''

Two Venetian Ladies ''Two Venetian Ladies'' is an oil on panel painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Vittore Carpaccio. The painting, believed to be a quarter of the original work, was executed around 1490 and shows two unknown Venetian ladies. The top portio ...

'', 1490 *

Jacopo de' Barbari Jacopo de' Barbari, sometimes known or referred to as de'Barbari, de Barberi, de Barbari, Barbaro, Barberino, Barbarigo or Barberigo (c. 1460/70 – before 1516), was an Italian painter, printmaker and miniaturist with a highly individual style. ...

, ''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