Palazzo dei Camerlenghi is a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

palazzo A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, located in the ''

sestiere A (plural: ) is a subdivision of certain Italian towns and cities. The word is from (‘sixth’), so it is thus used only for towns divided into six districts. The best-known example is the ''sestieri'' of Venice, but Ascoli Piceno, Genoa, M ...

'' (quarter) of

San Polo San Polo ( vec, San Poło) is the smallest and most central of the six sestieri of Venice, northern Italy, covering 86 acres (35 hectares) along the Grand Canal. It is one of the oldest parts of the city, having been settled before ...

. It faces the

Canal Grande The Grand Canal ( it, Canal Grande ; vec, Canal Grando, anciently ''Canałasso'' ) is a channel in Venice, Italy. It forms one of the major water-traffic corridors in the city. One end of the canal leads into the lagoon near the Santa Lucia ...

, adjacent to the

Rialto Bridge The Rialto Bridge ( it, Ponte di Rialto; vec, Ponte de Rialto) is the oldest of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. Connecting the ' (districts) of San Marco and San Polo, it has been rebuilt several times since its fir ...

History

Viewed from the terrace of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi The palazzo was built in the fifteenth century and finished in 1488. From 1525 to 1528 it was enlarged according to a design by

Guglielmo dei Grigi Guglielmo Bergamasco (also known as Guglielmo dei Grigi; c. 1485 – 1550) was an Italian architect and sculptor of the Renaissance period. He was born in Alzano Lombardo, near Bergamo, and later moved to Venice. He was a relative of Pietro ...

, who was inspired by the style of

Mauro Codussi Mauro Codussi (1440–1504) was an Italian architect of the early-Renaissance, active mostly in Venice. The name is also rendered as ''Coducci''. He was one of the first to bring the classical style of the early renaissance to Venice to replace th ...

and

Pietro Lombardo Monument of the Doge Pietro Mocenigo 1481 :''Pietro Lombardo is also the Italian version of the name of the theologian Peter Lombard.'' Pietro Lombardo (1435–1515) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor and architect; born in Carona (Ticino), he ...

. It was the headquarters for several financial magistrates, including the , from whom it takes its name, the Consuls of the Traders and the Supra-Consuls of the Traders. Due to this function, the lower floor was used as a jail for those who defaulted on their debts: the location near the crowded Rialto Bridge served as an admonition for the people passing by. The palazzo currently houses the regional main offices of the Italian

Comptroller and Auditor General An auditor general, also known in some countries as a comptroller general or comptroller and auditor general, is a senior civil servant charged with improving government accountability by auditing and reporting on the government's operations. Fr ...

Description

The three-storey palazzo has a pentagonal floor plan which follows the shoreline of the Grand Canal. It has tall windows with

centring Centring, centre, centering"Centering 2, Centring 2" def. 1. Whitney, William Dwight, and Benjamin E. Smith. ''The Century dictionary and cyclopedia''. vol. 2. New York: Century Co., 1901. p. 885., or center is a type of formwork: the temporary str ...

s, divided by false columns and decorated with friezes. There were once polychrome marble and porphyry slabs, now lost. The medallion on the facade once incorporated a painted St Mark's lion. Due to the Venetian tradition that, when leaving their post, magistrates would leave a religiously themed painting and a portrait in their former office, the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi came to house numerous artworks. Sometimes these paintings expressed social-political notions of civic virtue.N. Kölmel: The Queen in the Pawnshop: Shaping Civic Virtues in a Painting for the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi in Venice. These were removed during the

French occupation French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...

; some eventually returned to Venice, mostly to the

Gallerie dell'Accademia The Gallerie dell'Accademia is a museum gallery of pre-19th-century art in Venice, northern Italy. It is housed in the Scuola della Carità on the south bank of the Grand Canal, within the sestiere of Dorsoduro. It was originally the gallery o ...

Sources

*
Cottrell, Philip: Corporate Colors: Bonifacio and Tintoretto at the Palazzo Dei Camerlenghi in Venice
* Hamilton, Paul C. The Palazzo dei Camerlenghi in Venice. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 42 (1983) 258–271. * Kölmel, Nicolai: The Queen in the Pawnshop: Shaping Civic Virtues in a Painting for the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi in Venice.In: Burghartz et al: Sites of Mediation. Connected Histories of Places, Processes, and Objects in Europe and Beyond, 1450–1650. Brill, Leiden 2016. doi: 10.1163/9789004325760_006

References

{{Coord, 45.438341, 12.335823, scale:2000, format=dms, display=title Buildings and structures completed in 1528 Houses completed in the 16th century Camerlenghi Camerlenghi Renaissance architecture in Venice

History

Description

See also

Sources

References