Ca d'Oro

Give the index card

Ca d’Oro (Palazzo Contarini), Giovanni and Bartolomeo Bon, 1420-40, Istrian stone, tile, glazing, Grand Canal, Venice, Italy

Give the elements for a thumbnail sketch

• Throughout:

• Lancet windows

• Ogee arches

• First floor:

• Recessed colonnaded loggia

• Round central arch for gondola access

• Rope work reliefs (on the edge of the building)

• Piano nobile:

• Loggia like fenestration

• Quatrefoil rondels above columns

• Ogee arches with decorative caps

• (Inside) coloured tile decorations, visible through the windows

• Stained glass

• Heavy tracery

• Piano nobile and top:

• Superimposed balconies

• Top:

• Pseudo crenellations

• Slightly pointed roof

What did the building originally have that is now gone?

• The facade and crenellation balls were originally decorated with gold leaf and lapis lazuli

Does the building have a vertical or horizontal emphasis? Why is this?

• Vertical

• There was limited building space in Venice

Who was the facade commissioned by?

• Marino Contarini

• The house was extant as a family home, but facade renovations were common in Venice

What was the architects’ principal occupation?

They were stonecutters — artisans

Which materials were most commonly used in Venetian exteriors and why?

• Brick

• Grander structures were faced in Istrian stone

• They were more suited to the Venetian environment and sourced closer

What is unusual about the building’s crenelations?

They weren’t used for defence

Did Venetian buildings tend to have flat or vaulted roofs and ceilings?

Flat, and supported by timber beams, as they would not crack as the building’s foundations settled into the mud

Why does the facade have a lot of windows?

Most light comes from the facade, so these often have a lot of windows

How is the ground floor’s design unusual?

Ground floors are prone to flooding, so have few rooms and are usually used for storage or trade

What is the building’s portico used for?

The loading and unloading of goods

Is there a clear distinction between floors and functions?

Yes

Which influences characterise the Venetian Gothic style?

Byzantine and Islamic

Is the Venetian Gothic most commonly seen in religious or secular buildings?

Secular

In relation to other parts of Italy, when did the Renaissance building style appear in Venice?

Late

How does Venetian gothic architecture relate to northern Gothic architecture?

• Many innovations in Gothic architecture (such as flying buttresses) were designed to support huge vaults

• This was not possible in Venice, so much of the Venetian Gothic style is decorative rather than structural

• While tracery in Gothic cathedrals was introduced to support glazing, Venetian Gothic tracery is structural

• The lighter the tracery, the ‘lighter’ the building appears

Why did the building have to be restored in 1894? Who restored it?

• A previous owner had ‘renovated it’ and removed so many of the original Gothic features that he was prosecuted for vandalism

Give a brief quotation by Witold Rybczynski on the house’s composition

“The complex composition is an architectural tour de force”

Give Peter Murray’s judgement on part of the house’s facade

“The strange but highly successful device of a double arcade, with the wide openings on the ground floor and the narrow ones immediately above.”

What is one possible reason for the relatively late appearance of Renaissance architecture in the 1480s?

The distinctiveness and stylistic heterogeneity of the Venetian Gothic made it more resistant to the influence of Classical styles