Photo Pest: Museo Revoltella

The Venetian refugee whose bequest established the museum named after him died a century before the current administrators chose this arresting 1968 painting by Leonor Fini to market its idiosyncratic collection.

Two-year-old Pasquale Revoltella arrived with his family in Trieste after the Republic of Venice finally collapsed at the tail end of the 18th century, ending more than a millennium of Doge rule. He got his start in business importing grain and timber before becoming a financier determined to make his adopted city one of Europe's most important ports. A globalist visionary, Revoltella facilitated the introduction of the Frenchman who developed the Suez Canal to Archduke Maximilian while the latter was building Castello di Miramare, gaining critical buy-in from the Hapsburg monarchy which then ruled Trieste.

What was good for Trieste was good for Revoltella but as a hand-on kind of guy, he also became an official member of the development team and took a long journey to the operations site in Egypt. A museum gallery includes evocative paintings of the canal's construction as well as his travel journal.

Revoltella also clearly had high regard for himself. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

But it's also fun to speculate about the sexual orientation of lifelong bachelors, particularly when the museum website struggles to identify how Revotella met the Berlin architect, a decade younger, who designed the striking neo-Renaissance home that eventually became the museum.

Barone Pasquale Revoltella (1795 – 1869)

Shortly before his death, Revoltella was named a baron of the Austrian empire. He left not only his home and art collection to Trieste, but a fortune that has endowed museum's capital expansion (two other buildings have been added) and the continuous acquisition of Italian art.

I started on the ground floor of Revoltella's former home where this statue, at the base of stair case that rises three floors, allegorically commemorates the construction of mid-nineteenth century waterworks in Trieste. Opting for allegory instead of branding--how quaint!

"Fountain of the Aurisina Nymph" by Pietro Magni (1858)

Revoltella's art collection is displayed in his private apartments.

Napoleon I by Jean Antoine Houdon (1806)

After only a day in Italy, it had become clear that a bust of Dante was de rigueur in upper-class households.

Dante Alighieri by Vincenzo Vela (19th Century)

Valentino Valle & His Daughter by Giuseppe Tominz (ca 1829)

Another allegorical sculpture by Pietro Magni commands attention on the first floor. According to the museum's website "A graceful female figure, representing Europe, unites the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea – two male figure sitting by her side and holding her hand. At the centre the god Mercury benevolently observes the event and indicates to Navigation the new route."

"The Cutting of the Suez Isthmus" (1863)

Here's the same sculpture, seen from the floor above. The figure on the upper left--a genie--less allegorically records the names of the canal's developers.

"La Maschera" by Joseph Desire Court (19th century)

The upper floors of the museum exhibit works--all by Italians--acquired after Revoltella's death but this ornate triptych definitely captures his major interests.

"The Triptych Navigation, Art & History" by Eugenio Scomparini (1886)

"Estate" by Marcello Mascherini (1936)

One gallery recreates the studio of local artist Rovan Ruggero. He both painted and sculpted (left) his own image during a long career that lasted much of the 20th century.