The Doge's Palace is built in Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice in northern Italy.
The oldest part of the palace is the façade overlooking the lagoon, the corners of which are decorated with 14th-century sculptures by Filippo Calendario and various Lombard artists such as Matteo Raverti and Antonio Bregno. The ground floor arcade and the loggia above are decorated with 14th- and 15th-century capitals, some replaced with copies during the 19th century. In 1438–1442, Giovanni Bon and Bartolomeo Bon built and adorned the Porta della Carta, which served as the ceremonial entrance to the building. Flanked by Gothic pinnacles, with two figures of the Cardinal Virtues per side, the gateway is crowned by a bust of St. Mark over which rises a statue of Justice with her traditional symbols of sword and scales. In the space above the cornice, there is a sculptural portrait of the Doge Francesco Foscari kneeling before the St. Mark's Lion. This is, however, a 19th-century work by Luigi Ferrrari, created to replace the original destroyed in 1797. Nowadays, the public entrance to the Doge's Palace is via the Porta del Frumento, in the waterfront side of the building. The courtyard Palazzo Ducale, Giants' Staircase, Venice, Italy. Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection The north side of the courtyard is closed by the junction between the palace and St. Mark’s Basilica, which used to be the Doge’s chapel. At the center of the courtyard stand two well-heads dating from the mid-16th century. In 1485, the Great Council decided that a ceremonial staircase should be built within the courtyard. The design envisaged a straight axis with the rounded Foscari Arch, with alternate bands of Istrian stone and red Verona marble, linking the staircase to the Porta della Carta, and thus producing one single monumental approach from the Piazza into the heart of the building. Since 1567, the Giants’ Staircase is guarded by Sansovino’s two colossal statues of Mars and Neptune, which represents Venice’s power by land and by sea, and therefore the reason for its name.
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Location: The Doge's Palace is built in Venetian Gothic style, in the city of Venice in northern Italy.
Photo credit: © Rik Hamilton / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
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