Ca' d'Oro

For the museum, see Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca' d'Oro.

The Ca' d'Oro, or Palazzo Santa Sofia, is a palace on the Grand Canal in Venice, northern Italy. One of the older palaces in the city, its name means "golden house" due to the gilt and polychrome external decorations that once adorned its walls. Since 1927, it has been used as a museum, as the Galleria Giorgio Franchetti.

Ca' d'Oro
Ca' d'Oro façade overlooking the Grand Canal
Click on the map for a fullscreen view
General information
Location	Venice, Veneto
Address	Cannaregio 3932 (Calle Ca 'd'Oro)
Country	Italy
Coordinates	45°26′26″N 12°20′02″E
Construction started	1428
Construction stopped	1430
Owner	Galleria Giorgio Franchetti

It has long been regarded as the best-surviving palazzo in Venetian Gothic architecture, retaining all the most characteristic features, despite some losses. On the facade, the loggia-like window group of closely spaced small columns, with heavy tracery and quatrefoil openings above, use the formula from the Doge's Palace that had become iconic. There is also Byzantine-inspired decoration along the roofline and patterning in fancy colored stone to the flat wall surfaces. The smaller windows show a variety of forms with an ogee arch capped with a relief ornament, and the edges and zone boundaries are marked with rope-work reliefs.

The third act of Amilcare Ponchielli's opera, La Gioconda, is set in the palace.

History

Gondolier sailing in front of the Ca'd'Oro.

The palace was built between 1428 and 1430 for the Contarini family, who provided Venice with eight Doges between 1043 and 1676. The architects of the Ca d'Oro were Giovanni Bon and his son Bartolomeo Bon.

Following the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797, the palace changed ownership several times. In 1846, Alessandro Trubetzkoi, purchased the palace, which was in a ruinous state, as a gift for a ballet dancer Marie Taglioni. The reckless renovation of the architect resulted in his imprisonment under charges of vandalism. In the end, many of the Gothic features, including the stairway of the inner courtyard and the balconies which overlooked the courtyard, were removed.

In 1894, the palace was acquired by its last owner, baron Giorgio Franchetti. Throughout his lifetime, he amassed an important art collection and personally oversaw its extensive restoration, including the reconstruction of the stairway and the Cosmatesque courtyard with ancient marble. In 1916, Franchetti bequeathed the Ca' d'Oro to the Italian State. It is now open to the public as a gallery: Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca' d'Oro.

During the 2019 Venice flood, water levels reached the top of the wellhead in the inner courtyard.

Description

The principal façade of Ca' d'Oro, facing onto the Grand Canal, is built in the Bons' floral Venetian Gothic style. Other nearby buildings in this style are Palazzo Barbaro and the Palazzo Giustinian. This linear style favoured by the Venetian architects was not superseded by Venetian Renaissance architecture until the end of the 15th century, or later.

On the ground floor, a recessed colonnaded loggia gives access to the entrance hall (portego de mezo) directly from the canal. Above this colonnade is the enclosed balcony of the principal salon on the piano nobile. The columns and arches of this balcony have capitals which in turn support a row of quatrefoil windows; above this balcony is another enclosed balcony or loggia of a similar yet lighter design.

The palace has (like other similar buildings in Venice) a small inner courtyard. The neighboring palace is the Palazzo Giustinian Pesaro.

Francis H. Kimball, the famed American architect behind landmarks like the Empire State Building, used the Ca' d'Oro as inspiration for the Montauk Club, a social club in Brooklyn, New York.

Museum

The gallery houses the collection of works of art collected by Giorgio Franchetti in his life. Following the donation to the Italian State in 1916 and in preparation for the museum, the Franchetti collection was accompanied by some state collections from which most of the bronzes and sculptures on display come from, as well as numerous Venetian and Flemish paintings.

Among the most valuable works are the San Sebastiano by Andrea Mantegna and the Portrait of Marcello Durazzo by Antoon van Dyck.

In addition to the exhibition rooms, the museum houses various laboratories for the conservation and restoration of works of art.

• 
  The courtyard
• 
  Cosmatesque floor in the portego
• 
  Rear doorway, to the street
• 
  15th-century ceiling
• 
  Pencil and watercolour by John Ruskin. (1845)
• 
  Canal entrance during a flood
• 
  An exhibition hall on the second floor of the building

See also

• List of buildings and structures in Venice

References

• Goy, Richard J. (1992). The House of Gold. Cambridge.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Arslan, Edoardo (1979). Venezia gotica: l'architettura civile gotica veneziana. Milano: Electa. pp. 225–237.
• Brusegan, Marcello (2007). I Palazzi di Venezia. Roma: Newton & Compton. pp. 275–279. ISBN 978-88-541-0820-2.
• Fasolo, Andrea (2003). Palazzi di Venezia. Arsenale editrice. pp. 16–21. ISBN 978-88-7743-295-7.
• Fiore, Francesco Paolo (1998). Storia dell'architettura italiana: il Quattrocento. Milano: Electa. pp. 200–241.
• Fogolari, Gino (1936). Regia galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla ca' d'Oro di Venezia. Roma: La Libreria dello Stato.
• Gunawardena, K. (2005). Il Ca’d’Oro di Venezia. Bristol: UWE.
• Moschini Marconi, Sandra (1992). Galleria G. Franchetti alla ca'd'Oro: Venezia. Roma: Istituto poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato.
• Tourmann, Inga. Venezia: Leggi e ascolta. Hamburg: Jourist Verlags GmbH. ISBN 978-3-89-894504-2.

External links

• Galleria Giorgio Franchetti (in Italian)
• Satellite image from Google Maps
• Ca' d'Oro on Smarthistory

Preceded by Bridge of Sighs

Venice landmarks Ca' d'Oro

Succeeded by Ca' Foscari