How to deal with a Masterpiece

From July 10, 2025, Giovanni Bellini’s Presentation of Jesus in the Temple returns to the Fondazione Querini Stampalia. A new immersive and sensory installation has been created for the occasion.

A tribute to one of the greatest masterpieces of the Renaissance, the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, which, starting July 10, 2025, returns to the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice. The work will be housed within a structure designed both to protect it and showcase it. The installation will feature an original soundtrack and olfactory texture, creating an immersive sensory journey.
How to deal with a masterpiece is not just a tribute to the artwork itself, but also to its ability to generate meaning, emotion and beauty every time it is revealed in a new context. It is an invitation to experience it, not just to look at it. An act of care and a shared vision that transforms the exhibition into a collective experience, in which art becomes a space for encounter and participation.

A completely reinvented space: not a simple set design, but a true architecture that recalls the Venetian tradition of temporary structures, built over the centuries to celebrate solemn ceremonies and stimulate the collective imagination. A current reinterpretation of historical custom: this installation aims to subvert classical hierarchies and renew the way the public and the work interact, transforming Bellini’s return to the museum into a total sensory immersion.

“Works of art have always travelled: inside crates, in trunks, rolled up under the arm like baguettes. They have travelled to be saved, to be preserved. Some have never returned. Many are moved for special occasions such as temporary exhibitions, creating a fertile double movement — it is not only people who go to meet art, but art itself that moves, offering itself to new eyes. A continuous dialogue between space, time and vision, renews and multiplies meanings”, emphasises Cristiana Collu, Director of the Querini Stampalia Foundation. She continues: “Giovanni Bellini’s Presentation of Jesus at the Temple returns home. And the wonder of its return is at the heart of this encounter. We didn’t want to just frame it, but place it directly inside a fragrant treasure chest, bathed in soft light and new sounds: an ephemeral and colourful architecture that renews its vocation to be both home and threshold, journey and return, a shell, a nest, a cocoon to welcome the wonder of rediscovered beauty”.

The installation is designed by Madrid-based architect Izaskun Chinchilla, known for her use of color, material research and attention to detail. Her often visionary projects stem from a multidisciplinary perspective that interweaves architecture, design, craftsmanship and environmental sensitivity. In this installation, her style, characterized by its soft lines, light materials, and the use of light, is fully expressed, creating an almost fairy-tale dimension. Each element is designed to interact with the artwork, guiding visitors on a collective journey that engages sight, hearing and smell.

The structure of the Cocoon, designed to accommodate the painting, explores the contrast between rigidity and softness. The birch wood framework supports an acoustic felt covering, made from recycled plastic bottles, which gently lays and warps, sinuously, over the main framework, achieving the fluidity of a semi-rigid material and allowing light to filter inside, through the control of the curves produced. Velvet curtains modulate the painting’s exposure: either fully visible in the Green Drawing Room or in a more collected and intimate manner. This duality recalls the depictions of Venetian life in Gabriel Bella’s paintings, which are displayed in the next room. In these paintings, ephemeral fabric architectures transform permanent spaces, creating striking scenic effects.

The environment is also traversed by an original sound composition by Gavino Murgia, guiding the visitor. Archaic sounds evoke spiritual atmospheres and ancestral memories, inviting contemplative listening. Completing the sensory journey is Mystic Incense from The Merchant of Venice’s Murano Collection: an intense and refined fragrance with notes of incense inspired by the Muda of Egypt. The scent evokes the spices and essences that characterized 15th-century Venice, blending oriental accents with woody and gourmand nuances.

The President of the Foundation, Paolo Molesini, emphasises the value of this decision: “This is not just the return of a masterpiece, but the birth of an experience in which art, architecture and sensoriality merge into a single breath. The result is an invitation to rediscover the ability to be amazed, to let oneself be swept away by the beauty and mystery that Giovanni Bellini captures in that moment when the divine touches the human”.

The Cocoon, located in the Salotto Verde, is intended to occupy a significant portion of the space, creating a new centre of attention. In fact, it offers a reinterpretation of the importance of the works in the collection, with Bellini taking a central role. Introducing this distortion of the historical continuum within the museum means affirming a hierarchy that takes into account our current view of the objects. Bellini occupies more space – including mental space – which shifts the focus, changing the perception of the museum and its understanding today. This is achieved through small spatial operations that legitimise the comparison between contemporary and historical values enhancing our comprehension of the artwork’s.

The Cocoon offers a home to the painting, reconnecting it to the sensory stimuli that were familiar to it: restoring the sounds and smells of its time, reserving attention and centrality for it, and generating a space proportionate to its size. However the Cocoon is also a home for those who view it, not only individually, but as a group. A family approaching the painting may be surprised, comment on it, take time to appreciate the smells, sounds and visual details, and create a collective memory. A group of friends, siblings, or students at the end of their school career may find intimacy in this space in front of the artwork, making it one of the central hubs of their Venetian experience.

A vision that welcomes the public into an intimate and powerful experience, capable of becoming a shared moment. Because some works, like this one, do not simply return: they are reborn and come back to speak to us with a new voice.

Complementing the project in the upcoming fall there will be a Study Day entirely dedicated to the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. This event will gather international experts to delve into the historical, cultural and artistic significance of the work. It will be a time for discussion and reflection aimed at enhancing and protecting the artwork, restoring its full complexity and richness of meaning.

To support the initiative, a crowdfunding campaign has been launched, aimed particularly at the “Friends of the Querini,” with the goal of raising 3,000 euros. One can contribute with a minimum donation of 10 euros on the Rete del Dono platform. This gesture not only concretely supports the project but also strengthens the bond between the Foundation and its community, promoting active and shared cultural participation.

How to deal with a masterpiece. A tribute is a project supported by InfinityHub, ECOcero, Linealight, The Merchant of Venice, Gavino Murgia, and Studio Associato Danesin.