Reconstruction for the Sale in the Doge’s Palace

Venice (1574-1577) On 11th May 1574 a fire destroyed some of the representation rooms on the piano nobile of the Doge’s Palace. It was immediately resolved to reconstruct them and the technical and executive direction was entrusted to the “Proto” Antonio da Ponte, assisted by Andrea Palladio and Gianantonio Rusconi.
Palladio’s interventions are never specifiedin the payment registers, except for a payment of 15th January 1575 to the wood-carver who executed wooden elements designed by the Vicentine architect. Although it is difficult to identify any design interventions securely attributable to Palladio’s hand, scholars have in any case attempted to recognise them in the design of the internal doors, particularly that which leads from the Sala dell’Anticollegio to the Sala delle Quattro Porte, as well as those present in the latter room and the fireplaces of the Sala del Collegio and the Sala dell’Anticollegio.
Palladio’s presence at the Doge’s Palace is also documented between 1577 and 1578, when damaged building was restored after a second grave fire which destroyed important pictorial cycles. In this case too, scholars are divided over hypotheses about Palladio’s concrete input into the restoration.

Sala del Collegio (photo Sutto 1999)

Sala delle Quattro Porte (photo Sutto 1999)

Door of the Sala delle Quattro Porte (photo Sutto 1999)

Door of the Sala dell’Anticollegio (photo Sutto 1999)