Description
The Ca' d'Oro is the most celebrated palace of Venetian Gothic, overlooking the Grand Canal in the Cannaregio district. The name comes from the façade, which once had gilded parts in a rich polychromy that has since vanished. Since 1927 it has housed the Galleria Franchetti museum.
The façade is asymmetrical: on the left three openwork bands of loggias, on the right a wall faced with marble with small square windows. Below is a portico on the water where boats moored, and above a crenellation that echoes the Doge's Palace.
In the courtyard is the Bon family's marble wellhead, from 1427, with Justice, Fortitude and Charity carved on three sides. The portico on the ground floor has a floor of ancient marbles, designed by Baron Franchetti.
Among the works in the gallery is the Saint Sebastian by Andrea Mantegna, among the most precious. Then Titian's Venus at the Mirror, Van Dyck's portrait of Marcello Durazzo, two views by Guardi and a Crucifixion by Jan van Eyck.
There are also the remains of Titian's frescoes for the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, with the Judith, and three large canvases by Carpaccio and his workshop with Stories of the Virgin. Bronzes and sculptures come largely from the state collections.
The palace was commissioned by Marino Contarini, a merchant of a rich dogal family, shrewder in business than in politics. The land belonged to the Zeno, his wife's family, but after a quarrel he had to buy it without touching her dowry.
Widowed, he called in two workshops: the Milanese Matteo Raverti with his Lombards and the Venetians Giovanni and Bartolomeo Bon. They worked on the same site, but each in his own way.
Contarini put in his own touches, and it shows: the twisted colonnettes at the corners do not connect to the crowning, and the center of the pinnacles does not line up with that of the loggias. The façade was painted in 1431 by the painter Zuanne de Franza with gold, red, blue and black.
In the following centuries the palace passed from hand to hand and was altered. It was saved at the end of the nineteenth century by Baron Giorgio Franchetti, who bought it, restored it and gave it to the State together with his collection.
Don't miss
• The façade on the Grand Canal.
• The Bon wellhead.
• Mantegna's Saint Sebastian.
• Titian's Venus at the Mirror.
Did you know?
• Nothing remains of the work of the painter Zuanne de Franza, who covered marbles and stones with gold and colors.
• The portico floor, 350 square meters, was designed and partly made by Franchetti himself.
The façade is asymmetrical: on the left three openwork bands of loggias, on the right a wall faced with marble with small square windows. Below is a portico on the water where boats moored, and above a crenellation that echoes the Doge's Palace.
In the courtyard is the Bon family's marble wellhead, from 1427, with Justice, Fortitude and Charity carved on three sides. The portico on the ground floor has a floor of ancient marbles, designed by Baron Franchetti.
Among the works in the gallery is the Saint Sebastian by Andrea Mantegna, among the most precious. Then Titian's Venus at the Mirror, Van Dyck's portrait of Marcello Durazzo, two views by Guardi and a Crucifixion by Jan van Eyck.
There are also the remains of Titian's frescoes for the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, with the Judith, and three large canvases by Carpaccio and his workshop with Stories of the Virgin. Bronzes and sculptures come largely from the state collections.
The palace was commissioned by Marino Contarini, a merchant of a rich dogal family, shrewder in business than in politics. The land belonged to the Zeno, his wife's family, but after a quarrel he had to buy it without touching her dowry.
Widowed, he called in two workshops: the Milanese Matteo Raverti with his Lombards and the Venetians Giovanni and Bartolomeo Bon. They worked on the same site, but each in his own way.
Contarini put in his own touches, and it shows: the twisted colonnettes at the corners do not connect to the crowning, and the center of the pinnacles does not line up with that of the loggias. The façade was painted in 1431 by the painter Zuanne de Franza with gold, red, blue and black.
In the following centuries the palace passed from hand to hand and was altered. It was saved at the end of the nineteenth century by Baron Giorgio Franchetti, who bought it, restored it and gave it to the State together with his collection.
Don't miss
• The façade on the Grand Canal.
• The Bon wellhead.
• Mantegna's Saint Sebastian.
• Titian's Venus at the Mirror.
Did you know?
• Nothing remains of the work of the painter Zuanne de Franza, who covered marbles and stones with gold and colors.
• The portico floor, 350 square meters, was designed and partly made by Franchetti himself.