Palazzo Balbi is a palace on 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 Luci ...

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 ...

. It is included 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

Dorsoduro Dorsoduro is one of the six sestieri of Venice, in northern Italy. Dorsoduro includes the highest land areas of the city and also Giudecca island and Isola Sacca Fisola. Its name derives from the Italian for "hard ridge", due to its comparati ...

, to the right of

Ca' Foscari Ca' Foscari, the palace of the Foscari family, is a Gothic building on the waterfront of the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro ''sestiere'' of Venice, Italy. It was built for the doge Francesco Foscari in 1453, and designed by the architect B ...

. Currently it is the seat of the President of the

Veneto Veneto (, ; vec, Vèneto ) or Venetia is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about five million, ranking fourth in Italy. The region's capital is Venice while the biggest city is Verona. Veneto was part of the Roman Empire unt ...

region and of the regional council. It was built from 1582, under design by

Alessandro Vittoria Alessandro Vittoria funerary monument - San Zaccaria, Venice Alessandro Vittoria (1525–1608) was an Italian Mannerist sculptor of the Venetian school, "one of the main representatives of the Venetian classical style" and rivalling Giamb ...

as the residence of the Venetian patrician family of the Balbi. In the 19th century it was acquired by Michelangelo Guggenheim and later by the Adriatic Electric Society. It became a property of the Veneto region in 1971.

Description

The palace has two floors, over a double-height rusticated basement with a

mezzanine A mezzanine (; or in Italian language, Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft ...

and entresol, in a symmetrical façade on the Grand Canal. The ground floor has a large portal in the center featuring a mascaron and tympanum; there are two minor entrances at the sides. The two ashlar upper floors are divided into three sectors by Ionic and Corinthian pilasters and separated horizontally by a wide entablature. In the center are triple

mullioned window A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

s featuring paired

Doric column The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...

s and parapets. Between the first-floor windows are the

coat-of-arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its w ...

of the Balbi family. It is the first Palazzo in Venice featuring the window decoration of the interrupted tympanum. In a frieze under the dentilled

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

are small oval windows in elaborate stone frames. On the top are two obelisk-shaped pinnacles, similar to those in the

Palazzo Belloni Battagia Palazzo Belloni Battagia (also spelled Palazzo Belloni Battaglia) is a palace on the Canal Grande, Venice, northern Italy. It is located in the ''sestiere'' (district) of Santa Croce, between the Fondaco del Megio and Ca' Tron, near the church ...

. The interior contains 18th-century frescoes by

Jacopo Guarana 225px, ''Allegory of the virtues Mocenigo'', 1787 Jacopo Guarana (October 28, 1720 – April 18, 1808) was a Venetian painter of the late Baroque period who was born in Verona. He was active mainly in Venice and its mainland territories. In ...

References

* {{Coord, 45.435022, 12.327051, scale:2000, format=dms, display=title Buildings and structures completed in 1582 Balbi Balbi Renaissance architecture in Venice 1582 establishments in Italy