Architectural, Cultural sights in Venice
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Palazzo Ducale
Don’t be fooled by its Gothic elegance: this building was all business, from medieval carved stone capitals depicting key Venetian guilds along the arcade, to Giovanni and Bartolomeo Bon’s 15th-century PortadellaCarta (Paper Door), the bulletin board for government decrees facing the piazza. The building was damaged by fire in 1577, but Antonio da Ponte (who designed the Ponte di Rialto) restored it.
Entering through the colonnaded courtyard, you’ll spot Sansovino’s statues of Mars and Neptune flanking the Scala dei Giganti (Giants’ Staircase), which Antonio Rizzo built as a suitably grand entrance for Venice’s dignitaries and which is currently undergoing restora…
reviewed
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Palazzo Vendramin-Calergi
High Renaissance meets high risk at this 16th-century palace, which for centuries has served as the city’s casino. This might seem like an odd place to convalesce, but composer Richard Wagner was no stranger to drama, and chose to retreat here in 1882–83 to recover from an apparent bout of heart trouble and complete the 20-year effort on this Ring cycle. He succeeded, only to die of a heart attack here within a few months. You can wander into the ground-floor area during casino hours, but unless you’re staying in a high-end hotel that offers free passes, you’ll have to don formal attire and pay to see the gaming rooms. Three of the salons Wagner occupied have been set a…
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Palazzo Querini Stampalia
Design-savvy drinkers take their spritz ( prosecco cocktail) with a twist of high modernism in the Carlo Scarpa–designed courtyard garden or Mario Botta–designed cafe of 16th-century Palazzo Querini Stampalia. The outer shell of this building dates from the first half of the 16th century, but the inside could not be more surprising: a 1963 bridge, 1940s entrance and garden, and 1959 1st-floor library all designed by Scarpa, with noteworthy 1990s Botta embellishments. Enter through the Botta-designed bookstore to get a free pass to the cafe and its garden, or buy a ticket to head upstairs to the 2nd-floor Museo della Fondazione Querini Stampalia. In a series of sumptuo…
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Palazzo Grassi
Paris is still burning with indignation over French luxury goods magnate François Pinault’s decision to host world-class art exhibitions and works from his own standout collection of contemporary art collection not in a Paris suburb, but in a baroque Grand Canal palace. But just have a look around at the 2005 gallery renovation, and even the most patriotic Parisian could hardly blame the guy. Giorgio Massari’s 1749 neoclassical palace has become a glorious anachronism in the hands of minimalist architect Tadao Ando, whose movable panels, backlit scrims, and strategic pools of light allow viewers to focus on illuminating art and ideas without eclipsing frescoed ceilings an…
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Ca’ Rezzonico (Museo del Settecento Veneziano)
Other museums may illuminate, but this one sparkles. This period-piece Longhena palace showcases 18th-century arts in lavish music salons, sumptuous boudoirs, even a pharmacy with medicinal scorpions. Several salons are crowned with ceiling masterpieces by Giambattista Tiepolo, in rare form with sensuous beauty and shameless flattery. The Throne Room shows gorgeous Merit ascending to the Temple of Glory clutching the Golden Book of Venetian nobles’ names – including Tiepolo’s patrons, the Rezzonico family. Other collection highlights include the Pietro Longhi Salon satirising of society antics observed by disapproving lapdogs; the Sala Rosalba Carriera, with her unv…
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Palazzo Mocenigo
Costume dramas unfold in swanky 18th-century salons of this Grand Canal palace with displays of original baroque costumes. Necklines plunge in the Red Living Room, lethal corsets come undone in the Contessa’s Bedroom, and deep red procurators’ robes hide deep pockets and expanding waistlines in the Dining Room. It’s easy to imagine romance blossoming under the ceiling fresco to nuptial bliss in the Green Drawing Room, and doge elections being negotiated in the Count’s Library – seven Mocenigo family members served as dogi. The five big portraits are of Mocenigo allies and sometime party guests, such as Charles II of England. But even at the most extravagant partie…
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Casa di Goldoni
Comedians, musicians and writers will feel inspiration bubbling up like a belly laugh from the stone floors at the birthplace of Carlo Goldoni (1707–93), Venice’s greatest playwright and a maestro of delicious social satire and opera buffa (comic opera). As the 1st-floor display explains (in Italian), Goldoni was a master of second and third acts: he was a doctor’s apprentice before switching to law, a backup career that proved handy when some comedies didn’t sell. But Goldoni had the last laugh, with salon sitcoms that made socialites laugh at themselves. The main draws in the museum are the 18th-century marionettes and puppet theatre, but don’t miss the chambe…
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Palazzo Labia
Now the Venice office of the RAI, Italy's national radio and TV organisation, this was once a grand 17th-century family residence. It boasts several frescoes by Giambattista Tiepolo, but you must phone to arrange a visit (when open).
The Labia family had arrived from Spain and planned to make a hit among the local aristocracy. The frescoes are said to represent Tiepolo's greatest secular commission.
The grand ballroom, a two-storey-high space characterised by a gamut of architectural trompe l'oeil trickery, is the framework for two giant frescoes depicting the meeting of Anthony and Cleopatra and Cleopatra's banquet. In the latter fresco, Tiepolo included a portrait of him…
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Palazzo Fortuny
The not-so-humble home studio of outrageous art nouveau Spanish-Venetian designer Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo features three floors swagged with Fortuny’s printed textiles, mood-lit with his signature patterned glass lanterns. Today these sumptuous halls host rotating exhibits by modern artisans, inevitably upstaged by Fortuny’s preserved top-floor studio and 1910 sketches of bohemian goddess frocks that could rule red carpets today. If these salons inspire decor schemes of your own, check out Fortuny Tessuti Artistici in Giudecca, where wall coverings are still hand-printed according to Fortuny’s top-secret methods.
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Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo
This 15th-century palazzo is a hidden jewel of Renaissance architecture with an external spiral bovolo (snail-shell) staircase that was closed for restoration at the time of writing, and a shady courtyard that offers privacy for smooches and stirring views of the staircase.
reviewed
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