F0812 Constructing Patrician Identity: Palaces and Tombs in Renaissance Venice

This course focuses on the way the Venetian elite was represented through art and architecture between 15th and 16th century in Venice. We will be looking at how patricians celebrated the individual and their kin through the construction of a family palace, or of a funerary chapel by means of the analysis of a series of case studies in comparative perspective. A detailed examination of coupled case studies – a palace and a funerary monument/chapel, seen as the House of the living, and the House of the dead – will be followed by visits to the sites to value the context.
The case studies will include many of the landmarks of Venetian art, to name a few: the tombs of the doges in SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Ca’ Foscari/ Foscari’s Monument in Santa Maria dei Frari, Ca’ Loredan Vendramin Calergi/the Loredan Chapel in S. Michele in Isola, Ca’ Cornaro/the Cornaro chapel in SS. Apostoli, Ca’ Gritti/the Gritti monument in San Francesco della Vigna and the Pesaro Chapel in S. Maria dei Frari, one of the few chapels of the early modern era dedicated to the mater familiae.
The monuments will be considered in terms of both sculptural and architectural form, considering wills and contracts, patron and artists, and typology, with a view to determining political motivation behind their design. Issues of interest will include the importance of palaces and funerary monuments as a means of recalling classical civilization and the changing social attitude towards the power of imagery.