Venice and the Doge’s Palace

Having entered the Palace by the Porta del Frumento [Wheat Gateway], which is in the oldest, south-facing wing, one has the west-facing Piazzetta wing to one's left, and the east-facing Renaissance wing to one's right.

The north side of the courtyard is closed by the junction between the Palace and St. Mark's Basilica, which was the Doge's chapel. The small marble facade with clock (4) that stands there dates from rebuilding work in 1615. At the centre of the courtyard stand two vere da pozzo [wellheads] (5); massive and ornate works in cast bronze, they date from the middle of the sixteenth century.

The courtyard facads of the two oldest wings are simple and severe, whilst the Renaissance wing facade is much more ornate, and culminates towards the far end in the Giant's Staircase (6). Used for formal entrances into the Palace, this is guarded by two colossal statues of Mars and Neptune which were produced by Sansovino in 1565 and symbolise Venice's power on both land and sea. Designed by Antonio Rizzo, the staircase is near the Arch (7) commissioned by Doge Francesco Foscari (1423 - 1457); with a rounded vault and decorated with alternate bands of Istrian stone and red Verona marble, this veritable triumphal archway (8) links up with the Porta della Carta (Paper Gateway) through which modern-day visitors leave the Palace.

To the right of the Giants' Staircase is the Senators' Courtyard (9), where the members of the Senate gathered before government meetings. On the same wing of the Palace, but at the opposite end to the Giants' Staircase, the wide Censor's Staircase (10) rises from under the arcades to the loggia floor above. Built in 1525, perhaps to designs by Scarpagnino, this is where one's visit to the upper floors begins.

The loggias enfold three sides of the building - east, south and west - offering atmospheric views of both the inner courtyard and the Piazzetta to the side of the Palace. They are also the feature which creates that extraordinary sense of lightness in the outside appearence of the building. Today, the fourteenth-century wing of the loggia-floor houses the Superintendence for Venice's Architectural and Environmental Heritage, whilst the Renaissance wing houses some of the offices of the museum's bookshop.

The route of the visit takes one from the Censors' Staircase to the Golden Staircase, which leads to the upper floors, by way of this Renaissance wing. Various state government offices were located here; and in the walls are set a number of bocche di leone [Lion's Mouths], the characteristic lion-head letterboxes through which, from the sixteenth century onwards, it was possible to post anonymous denunciations of crimes or misdeeds. On the other side of the lion's mouth, the denunciation fell into a wooden box which opened directly into the office responsible for the matter concerned.

It should be pointed out that only very rarely did the government act on such accusations, and only after careful investigation. Two plaques here are also worthy of note. One fourteenth-century plaque (1362) with Gothic lettering dates from the papacy of Urban V and promises Indulgences to those who give alms to the incarcerated; the other plaque stands opposite the head of the Giant's Staircase and can be most easily seen at the end of the visit; a refined piece of work by Alessandro Vittoria, it commemorates the visit to Venice by the French king Henry III in 1574.

The name of the Golden Staircase is due to the rich decoration of the vault in white stucco and 24-carat gold, upon which Alessandro Vittoria began work in 1557; the frescoed compartments in the decoration are by Giambattista Franco.

Commissioned from the architect Jacopo Sansovino in 1555 by the Doge Andrea Gritti, whose armorial bearings can be seen on the large archway, the Staircase was finally completed by Scarpagnino in 1559.

This was the ceremonial staircase that led up to the Doge's apartments and to the chambers in which the main bodies of state government met. Its sumptuous entranceway is surmounted by two marble sculptures: on the right, Atlas bearing up the Vault of the Heavens; on the left Hercules Slaying the Hydra. Both are the work of Tiziano Aspetti (sixteenth century).

The first ramp of the staircase is dedicated to Venus - an allusion to Venice's conquest of the island of Cyprus, birthplace of the goddess.

The stairs then fork into two ramps. The one of the right leads towards the Doge's apartments and is decorated with motifs referring to Neptune, and thus to Venice's mastery over the seas. In both cases, mythology is put to the service of the Republic and its celebration of itself.

Here begins the long series of Institutional Chambers within the Palace, those rooms which housed the highest levels of a political and administrative system that was the object of widespread admiration for centuries. The very immutability of the system was amazing: without any written constitution as such, it was efficient enough to last over time and guarantee social peace. After the mid 1300s, the city was entirely free from riot or rebellion, and no one questioned the rights and abilities which enabled the city's aristocracy to monopolise management of the State; in fact, the regime symbolised by the Lion of St. Mark enjoyed extraordinary popular support and skilfully nurtured the myth of itself.

These chambers housed not only all the main organs of government within the Republic - from the Great Council, to the Senate and the more restricted Full Council - but also the most important bodies for the administration of justice, from the Council of Ten to the three Councils of Forty.

In each of the rooms, the decoration is always a throughly-planned celebration of the virtues of the State and the functions of government to be performed there.

The room served largely as a waiting-room, the antechamber to all the various halls of government. The decoration dates from the sixteenth century, during the period of Doge Girolamo Priùli, who appears in Tintoretto's ceiling painting with the symbols of his office and accompanied by allegories of Justice and Peace.

The four scenes around, probably by Tintoretto's workshop, comprise biblical stories - perhaps an allusion to the virtues of the Doge - and allegories of the four seasons.

The celebratory decor of the room was completed by four paintings of mythological scenes by Tintoretto which now hang in the antechamber to the Hall of the Full Council. Their place here has been taken by Girolamo Bassano's The Angel appearing to the Shepherds and other biblical scenes that are, with reservations, attributed to Veronese.

This was the formal antechamber where foreign ambassadors and delegations waited to be received by the Full Council, which was delegated by the Senate to deal with foreign affairs.

Like the previous room, this was restored after the 1574 fire and so its decor, with stucco-work and ceiling frescoes, is similar to what one finds in the Hall of Four Doors.

The central fresco - by Paolo Caliari, better known as Veronese - shows Venice distributing honours and rewards. The top of the walls is decorated with a fine frieze, and other sumptuous fittings include the fireplace between the windows - designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi and sculpted by Tiziano Aspetti around 1586 - and the fine doorway leading into the Hall of the Full Council, whose Corinthian columns bear a pediment surmounted by a marble sculpture showing the female figure of Venice resting on a lion and accompanied by allegories of Glory and Concord; the work is by Alessandro Vittoria.

Next to the doorways are four canvases that Jacopo Tintoretto painted for the Square Atrium, but which were brought here in 1716 to replace the original leather wall panelling. Each of the mythological scenes depicted is also an allegory of the Republic's wise government.

The Antechamber contains other famous works, including Paolo Veronese's The Rape of Europe.

The Pien Collegio [Full Council] which met in this room was comprised of two separate and independent organs of power, the Savi and the Signoria. The former was in its turn divided into the Savi del Consiglio, who concerned themselves mainly with foreign policy; the Savi di Terraferma, responsible for matters linked with Venice's empire in mainland Italy; and the Savi agli Ordini, who dealt with maritime issues. The Signoria itself was made up of the three Heads of the Councils of Forty and of the members of the so-called Minor Consiglio (which consisted of the Doge and six councillors, one for each of the sestieri - districts - into which the city of Venice is divided). The Full Council was mainly responsible for organising and coordinating the work of the Senate, reading dispatches from ambassadors and city governors, receiving foreign delegations and promoting other political and legislative activity. The decor was designed by Andrea Palladio to replace that destroyed in the 1574 fire; and the wood panelling of the walls and end tribune - together with the carved ceiling - are the work of Francesco Bello and Andrea da Faenza. The splendid paintings set into that ceiling were commissioned from Paolo Veronese, who completed them between 1575 and 1578. This ceiling is one of the artist's masterpieces and celebrates the Good Government of the Republic, together with the Faith on which it rests and the Virtues that guide and strengthen it. The first rectangular panel shows the bell-tower of St. Mark's behind the figures of Mars and Neptune, Lords of War and the Sea. The central panel shows the Triumph of Faith, and the rectangular panel closest to the tribune, Venice with Justice and Peace.

Around there are some eight smaller, T-or L-shaped, panels that depict the virtues of government. The large canvas over the tribune is again by Paolo Veronese, and was produced in celebration of the Christian fleet's victory over the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto on 7 October 1571 - a victory to which the men and ships of Venice made an essential contribution. The rest of the paintings in here are by Tintoretto and his studio; they show various doges with Christ, the Virgin and saints.

This hall was also known as the Sala dei Pregadi, because the doge "prayed" the members of the Senate to take part in the meetings held here. The Senate which met in this chamber was one of the oldest public institutions in Venice; it had first been founded in the thirteenth century and then gradually evolved over time, until by the sixteenth century it was the body mainly responsible for overseeing political and financial affairs in such areas as manufacturing industries, trade and foreign policy. In effect, it was a more limited sub-committee of the Great Council.

The refurbishment after the 1574 fire took place during the 1580s, and once the new ceiling had been completed work started on the pictorial decoration, which seems to have been finished by 1595. In the works produced for this room by Tintoretto and his studio, Christ is clearly the predominant figure. The room also contains four votive paintings by Jacopo Palma il Giovane which are linked with specific events in Venetian history.

The Council of Ten that gives this room its name was set up after a conspiracy in 1310, when Bajamonte Tiepolo and other noblemen tried to overthrow the institutions of the State. Initially meant as a provisional body to try those conspirators, the Council of Ten is one of those many examples of Venetian institutions which were intended to be temporary but ended up becoming permanent. Its authority covered all sectors of public life - from religious orthodoxy to foreign policy, from espionage to state security - and this range of powers gave rise to the legend of the Council as a ruthless, all-seeing tribunal at the service of the ruling oligarchy, a court whose sentences were handed down rapidly after hearings held in secret.

The assembly was made up of ten members chosen from the Senate and elected by the Great Council. These ten sat in council with the Doge and his six counsellors, which accounts for the seventeen semicircular outlines that one can still see in the chamber. The decoration of the ceiling was the work of Giovanni Battista Ponchino, with the assistance of a young Paolo Veronese and Giovanni Battista Zelotti. Carved and gilded, the ceiling is divided into twenty-five compartments decorated with images of divinities and allegories intended to illustrate the power of the Council of Ten, which - like the court of Heaven - was responsible for punishing the wicked and freeing the innocent. It is very difficult to interpret each individual compartment because the artists often tend to overlap the traditional interpretation of a mythological event or figure with a reading that is specific to Venice and its history.

The paintings of Veronese - from that of the old oriental figure to that showing Juno scattering her gifts on Venice - are particularly famous. The oval in the centre, showing Jove descending from the clouds to hurl thunderbolts at Vice, is however a copy of the Veronese original, which Napoleon had taken to the Louvre.

This is the first room on this floor dedicated to the administration of justice; its name comes from the large wooden compass (bussola) surmounted by a statue of Justice which stands in one corner and hides the entrance to the rooms of the three Heads of the Council of Ten and the State Inquisitors (which can only be visited as part of the Secret Itineraries tour). This room therefore was the antechamber where those who had been summoned by these powerful magistrates waited to be called; and the magnificent decor was intended to underline the solemnity of the Republic's legal machinery, some of the most famous and efficient components of which were housed in these rooms.

The decor dates from the sixteenth century. and once again it was Paolo Veronese who was commissioned to decorate the ceiling. Completed in 1554, the works he produced are all intended to exalt the "good government" of the Venetian Republic; the central panel, with St. Mark descending to crown the three Theological Virtues, is however a copy of the original, now in the Louvre.

The large fireplace was designed by Jacopo Sansovino in 1553-54.

Within the Palace, all the rooms which served in the exercise of justice were linked vertically. From the ground-floor prisons known as The Wells, to the Advocate's Offices on the loggia floor, the Councils of Forty and the Hall of the Magistrates of Law on the first floor and the various courtrooms on this second floor, the progression culminated in the prisons directly under the roof, the famous Piombi or "Leads". All of these spaces were interconnected by stairways, corridors and vestibules.

From this room, in fact, one can pass to the Armoury and the New Prisons, on the other side of the Bridge of Sighs.

In Venetian dialect a liagò is a terrace or veranda enclosed by glass.

This particular example was a sort of corridor and meeting-place for patrician members of the Great Council in the intervals between their discussions of government business. The ceiling of painted and gilded beams dates from the middle of the sixteenth century, whilst the paintings on the walls are seventeenth- and eighteenth-century.

Here the itinerary continues with a visit to the rooms in which justice was administered.

The Quarantia [Council of Forty] seems to have been set up by the Great Council at the end of the twelfth century and was the highest appeal court in the Republic. Originally a single forty-man council which wielded substantial political and legislative power, the Quarantia was during the course of the fifteenth century divided into three separate Councils: the Quarantia Criminal (for sentences in what we would call criminal law); the Quarantia Civil Vecchia (for civil actions within Venice) and the Quarantia Civil Nuovo (for civil actions within the Republic's mainland territories).

This room was restored in the seventeenth century; the fresco fragment to the right of the entrance is the only remnant of the original decor. The paintings hanging here date from the seventeenth century as well.

Vittorio Emanuele Bressanin
(Musile di Piave, 1860 - Venezia, 1941)
The Last Senate of the Republic of Venice
Oil on canvas
Venice, Museo Correr, Cl. I n.1994

THE ARTIST

Vittorio Bressanin is a painter originally from the Venetian mainland. He moved to Venice to attend the Academy of Fine Arts, where he was a student of Pompeo Marino Molmenti. He specialised in history painting and distinguished himself as an heir to the 18th-century Venetian tradition of frescoed decoration, which he interpreted with "sumptuous ease" (L. Bénédite).

He first gained notoriety at the 1887 National Art Exhibition in Venice with the painting on display here, which was purchased by the famous Venetian scholar Pompeo Gherardo Molmenti, Marino's nephew (Bressanin's teacher), who was a supporter of young artists and also made an important bequest to the Museo Correr.

Bressanin also exhibited at the 1894 Milan Triennale, where he won the Prince Umberto prize, at five editions of the Venice Biennale (1897, 1899, 1901, 1907, 1922); and at the Esposizione Nazionale in Rome in 1911. The Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna di Ca' Pesaro houses nine of his paintings.

THE PAINTING

On May 12, 1797, with Napoleon's troops lined up for an attack on the shores of the lagoon, the Great Council of Venice met for the last time and abdicated in favour of a revolutionary government controlled by the French military command. On May 15, 1797, the last doge Ludovico Manin left the Palazzo Ducale forever. That was how the thousand-year-old history of the Republic of Venice ended.

Ninety years later, in 1887, Vittorio Bressanin wished to convey the powerful meaning of those events with this painting. An elderly senator descends the Giants' Staircase in the Palazzo Ducale. His heavy steps and lowered gaze show dignity and resignation. The old-fashioned wig and the famous red gown, which distinguished the magistrates of the Pregadi (the members of the Venetian senate) from all the other patricians of Venice, now belonged to a bygone era, the agony of which can be felt in the contrast between the external pomp and the historical reality.

In the interpretation of the nineteenth-century painter, we do not read decadence, but a reflection on the intimate drama stoically experienced by the magistrate, who here becomes a symbol of the entire city.

Armamento Room or Guariento Room | Salle de Guariento

GUARIENTO DI ARPO
(Padua, active 1338 - 1367)

CORONATION OF VIRGIN know as PARADISO, 1365-1366
Fresco (detached 1905)
Venice, Doge's Palace, The Guariento Room

Partly because of the increase in the size of the Great Council in 1297, it was decided that there should be a radical reorganisation of the south wing of the Doge's Palace, which housed the government of the Republic. Ultimately giving the building the appearance we see today, work would begin in 1340 and continue for a long time. In 1365, the commission for the decoration of east wall of the new, enlarged Great Council Chamber went to Guariento. In the service of the Da Carrara family who ruled Padua, he was an artist known for his opulent Gothic style and for erudite compositions rich in theological, philosophical and literary references.

Soon famous for the splendour of its colours and its dazzling gold and silver decorations, the great fresco he produced centred around the figure of the Virgin, seated on a Gothic throne and being crowned by Christ (1). Below were seated the four Evangelists (2), with angel musicians beneath them (3). To the sides of the Evangelists were angels bearing lilies (4) or an orb and sceptre (5). To the left of the throne were the Cherubim (6), blue-winged and holding wheels in their hands; to the right were the red-winged Seraphim (7). Beyond these angelic hierarchies were two lines of seated saints - perhaps Prophets and Patriarchs - holding cartouches in their hands (8). Behind them stood more angels in armour (9) or bearing sceptre, orb and crown (10). Then followed a further two rows of seated saints holding books (11), behind whom were the relevant orders of the angelic host (12). A further two rows of saints with angels (13) has been lost entirely; in fact, all nine choirs of the angelic host were depicted, in strict observance of their place in the heavenly hierarchy. At the ends of the entire composition, two aedicules (14 and 15) contained the figures of the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin of the Annunciation. The entire work contained a number of features which underlined the parallel between the divine hierarchy of Heaven and that to be seen in the Council which met in this Chamber: the Virgin's throne was placed to correspond to the seat occupied by the doge; the lines of seated saints echoed the benches along the length of the chamber occupied by the councillors; the depiction of the Annunciation recalled that the city was traditionally believed to have been founded on the feast day of the Annunciation (25 March) in 421; the identification of the city with the Virgin Mary emphasised Venice's triumphant role in the world. The extant fragments of the fresco were discovered in the Great Council Chamber when Tintoretto's canvas was removed from the wall in 1903.

They were then transferred to canvas; thorough restoration, in 1995/1996, further improved their state of preservation.

53 metres long and 25 wide, this is not only the largest and most majestic chamber in the Doge's Palace but also one of the largest rooms in Europe. Here were held the meetings of the Maggior Consiglio [Great Council], the most important political body in the Republic. A very ancient institution, this Council was made up of all the male members of patrician Venetian families, irrespective of their individual status, merits or wealth. This was why, in spite of the restrictions in its powers which the Senate introduced over the centuries, the Great Council continued to be seen as bastion of republican equality - equality amongst aristocrats, that is.

The Council had the right to call to account all the other authorities and bodies of the State when it seemed that their powers were getting excessive and needed to be trimmed. The 1,200 to 2,000 noblemen who sat in the Council always considered themselves as the guardians of the laws which were the basis of all the other authorities within the State. Every Sunday, when the bell of St. Mark's rang, the council members would gather together in the hall, with the Doge presiding at the centre of the podium and his councillors occupying double rows of seats that ran, back-to-back, the entire length of the room.

This room also housed the first phases in the election of a new Doge, which in the later stages would pass into the Sala dello Scrutinio. These voting procedures were extremely long and complex, in order to frustrate any attempts at cheating. Restructured in the fourteenth century, the Chamber was decorated with a fresco by Guariento, the remains of which we have already seen, and later with works by the most famous artists of the period, including Gentile da Fabriano, Pisanello, Alvise Vivarini, Carpaccio, Bellini, Pordenone and Titian. When fire broke out in the Sala dello Scruinio next door in 1577, it also seriously damaged the structure of this chamber. Restoration work, maintaining the appaerance of the original chamber, was quickly completed; and decoration of the finished space involved such artists as Veronese, Tintoretto and Palma il Giovane. The walls were decorated with episodes from Venetian history, with particular reference to the city's relations with the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire, whilst the ceiling was decorated with the Virtues and individual examples of Venetian heroism, and a central panel containing an allegorical glorification of the Republic.

Facing each other in groups of six, the twelve wall paintings depict acts of valour or incidents of war that had occurred during the city's long history. Immediately below the ceiling runs a frieze with portraits of the first seventy-six doges (the portraits of the others are to be found in the Sala dello Scrutinio); commissioned from Jacopo Tintoretto, most of these paintings are in fact the work of his son, Domenico.

Each Doge holds a scroll bearing a reference to his most important achievements, whilst Doge Marin Faliero, who attempted a coup d'état in 1355, is represented simply by a black cloth (a traitor to the Republic, he was not only condemned to death but also damnatio memoriae, the total eradication of his memory and name). One of the long walls, behind the Doge's throne, is occupied by the longest canvas painting in the world, the Paradiso, which Jacopo Tintoretto and workshop produced between 1588 and 1592 to replace the Guariento fresco that had been damaged in the fire.

The room also contains three important works of sculpture: Adam, Eve and The Warrior. These are the originals produced to adorn the facades of the Foscari Gateway in the courtyard of the Palace. The work of Antonio Rizzo, they were sculpted between 1462 and 1471 and are masterpieces of realistic modelling and psychological insight.

Adam, Eve and Warrior (Mars), stunning masterpieces of the early Venetian Renaissance by Antonio Rizzo (c. 1430-40 .- c. 1499) are among some of the most important 15th century sculptures in Italy. The statues originally stood out in the open, in the niches on the middle section of the Foscari Arch: Eve on the right and Adam on the left of the east side façade, facing the staircase with the Giants by Sansovino; the Warrior (Mars) was instead the first sculpture on the south side of the Foscari Arch, facing the courtyard. The three sculptures were created for the Arch, but not all at the same time. Although their dating is not certain, they can be placed between 1470 and 1490.

The statues, of larger than natural dimensions, are made of Carrara marble.

In the Roman style, the Warrior (Mars) wears sandals, lorica armour with a skirt of leather lappets and metal plates and a cloak fastened on one side by a clasp. His face is exposed with his helmet raised and he leans on his rhomboid shield (the current design is a replacement from a nineteenth-century restoration).

Barefoot on a grass lawn, Adam leans against a tree trunk with numerous cut branches in the style of Mantegna and clutch the forbidden fruit in his hand and looks aloft in dialogue with the Almighty Father. Adam a sinewy, taut muscular mass and intensified, accurate anatomical study that bear traits of Paduan influence, but also have much in common with the physiognomies of Antonio Pollaiolo, something which suggests that Rizzo must have been to Florence at least once.

Eve seeks to cover her nudity, assuming the famous pose of the Venus pudica. The reference to the classical style is accentuated by the fact that Adam and Eve are the first monumental nudes of Venetian sculpture. Yet the body of Eve is not classical. It is instead heavily influenced by modern and Nordic models in its elongated proportions, narrow shoulders, long neck, wide hips, small head and graceful, elegant long hair (stylistic features that endured in countries North of Italy right up until the female figures of Lucas Cranach). Between Adam and Eve runs the headway and full formulation of Venetian Renaissance sculpture.

Established in 1492, the Quarantia Civil Nuova was the judicial body responsible for civil cases on the mainland, unlike the Quarantia Civil Vecchia, which dealt with civil cases within the lagoon territories.

The current appearance of the room is due to the restoring and conserving interventions carried out after the fire of 1577.

The seventeenth-century allegorical paintings found in the upper part of the walls refer to the judicial skills of the Quarantia magistrates. On the walls you can admire the Lions of San Marco by Donato Bragadin and Jacobello del Fiore. The latter comes from the Magistrato alla Bestemmia [Magistrate of Blasphemy], a body established by the members of the feared Council of X, whose officials were responsible for judging crimes against religion, morality and good customs.

From this room one enters the fifteenth-century wing of the Palace, built during the reign of Doge Francesco Foscari. It was here that the precious codices which Petrarch and Cardinal Bessarion had left to the Republic were housed before the building of the Biblioteca Marciana. Thereafter, in 1532, it was decided to use this chamber for the voting procedures required by various state appointments, hence its present name.

The decor dates from 1578-1615. The richly-decorated ceiling was designed by the painter-cartographer Cristoforo Sorte and depicts Venetian naval victories in the East and the conquest of Padua in 1405.

The walls are decorated with various military victories over the period 809 to 1656; Andrea Vicentino's rendering of the Battle of Lepanto is particularly striking.

It may seem strange that a room destined to be used for voting purposes has a decor which exalts military might rather than political wisdom; but the whole scheme was carried out just after that victory of Lepanto, at a time when Venice's pride in its arms was at its greatest.

The frieze under the ceiling continues the series of portraits of Doges, whilst one of the shorter walls is decorated with a Last Judgement. Painted by Jacopo Palma il Giovane between 1587 and 1592, this could be seen as linked with the Paradiso in the Hall of the Great Council.

The Voting Chamber ends with a majestic triumphal arch. The work of Andrea Tirali, this was raised to commemorate Doge Francesco Morosini Peloponnesiaco, who died in 1694 during the successful campaign in which Venice took control of the Peloponnese from the Turks.

Housing one of the three Councils of Forty, the highest appeal courts in the Venetian Republic, this is another room used in the administration of justice. The Quarantia Criminal was set up in the fifteenth century and, as the name suggests, dealt with cases of criminal law. It was a very important body as its members, who were part of the Senate as well, also had legislative powers. The wooden stalls date from the seventeenth century.

This chamber housed the Magistratura dei Conservatori ed esecutori delle leggi e ordini degli uffici di San Marco e di Rialto, to give them their full title. Created in 1553, this authority was headed by three of the city's patricians and was responsible for making sure the regulations concerning the practice of law were observed.

In a mercantile city such as Venice, the courts were of enormous importance (think, for example, of the amount of litigation, the number of court-cases, which must have arisen within such a huge market as the Rialto). And the administration of justice in the city was made all the more special by the fact that it was not based on Imperial, Common or Roman law but on a legal system that was peculiar to Venice.

The State Censors were set up in 1517 by Marco Foscari di Giovanni, a cousin of Doge Andrea Gritti and grandson of the great Francesco Foscari.

The title and duties of the Censors resulted from the cultural and political upheavals that are associated with Humanism. In fact, the Censors were not judges as such, but more like moral consultants - a role that is clear from the fact that they were only two in number, and thus incapable of giving a majority ruling. Their main task was the repression of electoral fraud and the protection of the State's public institutions. On the walls hang a number of Domenico Tintoretto's portraits of these magistrates, and below the armorial bearings of some of those who held the post.

This particular State Advocacy department dates from 12th century. The three members - the Avogadori - were the figures who safeguarded the very principle of legality, making sure that the laws were applied correctly.

Though they never enjoyed the status and power of the Doge and the Council of Ten, the Avogadori remained one of the most prestigious authorities in Venice right up to the fall of the Republic. They were also responsible for preserving the integrity of the city's patrician class - that is, verifying the legitimacy of the aristocratic marriages and births inscribed in the Golden Book.

The room is decorated with paintings showing some of the Avogadori venerating the Virgin, the Risen Christ or various saints.

The Venetian nobility as a caste came into existence because of the "closure" of admissions to the Great Council in 1297; however, it was only in the sixteenth century that formal measures were taken to introduce restrictions that protected the status of that aristocracy: marriages between noblefolk and commoners were forbidden, and greater controls were set up to check the validity of aristocratic titles, etc.

The enforcement of these restrictions came within the duties of the Avogaria di Comun, which was also responsible for drawing up the Golden Book, which registered the baptismal vows of each new-born patrician (if a baptism was not so registered, the aristocrat concerned risked finding himself excluded from the Great Council and thus from any role in the city's political life). It later became compulsory for each aristocrat to produce a marriage certificate before the Avogaria, irrespective of the social status of his wife.

There was also a Silver Book, which registered all those families that not only had the requisites of "civilisation" and "honour" but could also show that they were of ancient Venetian origin; such families furnished the manpower for the State bureaucracy - and particularly the chancellery within the Doge's Palace itself. The Golden and Silver Books were kept in a chest (scrigno) in this room, inside a cabinet that also contained all the documents proving the legitimacy of claims to be inscribed therein. The cabinet which one sees here nowadays extends around three sides of a wall niche; lacquered in white with gilded decorations, it dates from the eighteenth century.

Made up of twenty members from the Senate and the Great Council, the Milizia da Mar - first set up in the middle of the sixteenth century - was responsible for recruiting the crews necessary for Venice's war galleys. No easy task, given the large number of people required by the city's extensive fleet.

Contrary to what one might expect, the bulk of these crews were made up of paid oarsman drawn from the Venetian manufacturing industries - that is, from those various crafts and guilds which had a direct interest in preserving the city.

Another similar body, entitled the Provveditori all'armar, was responsible for the actual fitting and supplying of the fleet.

The furnishings and covered furniture are sixteenth-century, whilst the wall torches date from the eighteenth century.

The next room, now the Palace Bookshop, used to house the Lower Chancellery of the Doge's Palace.

Passing through there, you come out onto the loggia, opposite the Giants' Stairway.

The Opera, also known as the 'fabbriceria' (Works Office) or procuratoria (Procurators' Office), was a sort of technical office responsible for the maintenance of the Doge's Palace.

During the time of the Serenissima Republic, the care and maintenance of the building were under the jurisdiction of the Senate. In more recent times, one of the most significant restoration plans was launched in 1875, involving both the facades of the palace and the ancient capitals of the ground-floor portico and loggia. Forty-two of these capitals, particularly ancient, valuable, or fragile, were replaced with copies. The originals, stored in the palace, later underwent careful restoration, while a Museum of the Opera was designed and set up on the ground floor to house them with other important architectural relics of the Palace. The capitals displayed here are a valuable and important part of the extraordinary collection of sculptures and reliefs that adorn the medieval facades of the Doge's Palace.

"II Todaro"
the first Patron Saint of Venice

The statue depicting Saint Theodore of Amasea, the "Todaro", one of the most revered saints among the martyr soldiers of the East and patron saint of Venice before St. Mark, was originally on the top of the western column of Piazzetta San Marco, next to the column with the lion of St. Mark.

The statue is a pastiche of pieces from different eras and places: the head probably belonged to a colossal statue depicting Constantine, the bust belonged to a loricate statue of a Roman emperor, perhaps Hadrian; the other parts of the body and the dragon at its feet, similar to a crocodile, were added at the beginning of the fourteenth century. It is interesting to note the diversity of the materials used: the shield in Istrian stone; the legs, arms and dragon in Marmara marble (from the island of Marmarain the Sea of Marmara between the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea), the armour perhaps in lunense marble (Carrara marble named after the Port of Luni) or pentelic marble (from the quarry of the Mount Pentelicus, not far from Athens, also used for the Parthenon); and the head, which is in white marble from Docimium, near Afyon (today's Afyonkarahisar) in the western Turkey.

The dragon recalls the iconography of St. George, whose cult is traditionally linked to the protection against swamping and the healthiness of the air.