Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Venetian Gothic
Soaring spires and flying buttresses rose above Paris in the 12th century, making the rest of
Europe suddenly seem small and squat by comparison. Soon every European capital was
trying to top Paris with Gothic marvels of their own, featuring deceptively delicate ribbed
cross-vaulting that distributed the weight of stone walls and allowed openings for vast
stained-glass windows.
Europe's medieval superpowers used this grand international style to showcase their
splendour and status. Venice one-upped its neighbours not with height but by inventing its
own version of Gothic. Venice had been trading across the Mediterranean with partners
from Lebanon to North Africa for centuries, and the constant exchange of building materi-
als, engineering innovations and aesthetic ideals led to a creative cross-pollination in
Western and Middle Eastern architecture. Instead of framing windows with the ordinary
ogive (pointed) arch common to France and Germany, Venice added an elegantly tapered,
Moorish flourish to its arches, with a trilobate (three-lobed) shape that became a signature
of Venetian Gothic at Ca' d'Oro.
Brick Gothic
While Tuscany, like France and Germany, used marble for Gothic cathedrals, Venice show-
cased a more austere, cerebral style with clever brickwork and a Latin cross plan at I Frari,
completed in 1443 after a century's work, and Zanipolo, consecrated in 1430. The more
fanciful brick Madonna dell'Orto was built on 10th-century foundations, but its facade was
lightened up with lacy white porphyry ornament in 1460-64. This white stone framing red
brick may have Middle Eastern origins: the style is pronounced in Yemen, where Venice's
Marco Polo established trade relations in the 13th century.
Wagering which of Venice's brick
campanile
(bell towers) will next fall victim to shifting
barene
(mud banks) is a
morbid Venetian pastime - but don't bet on the leaning tower of San Giorgio dei Greci, which has
slouched ever since 1592. San Marco's
campanile
stood ramrod-straight until its 1902 collapse.
Secular Gothic
Gothic architecture was so complicated and expensive that it was usually reserved for
cathedrals in wealthy parishes - but Venice decided that if it was good enough for God,
then it was good enough for the doge. A rare and extravagant secular Gothic construction,
the Palazzo Ducale was built in grand Venetian Gothic style beginning in 1340, with refine-
