Gondolas - Venice: A Travel Guide to Murano Glass, Carnival Masks, Gondolas, Lace, Paper and More - page 29

Not only Venetians but also foreign visitors must have been impressed by these dis-
tinctive boats, since printmakers such as the Swiss artist Joseph Heinz the Younger and
the Dutch author and statesman Nicolaes Witsens disseminated views of the gondola in
woodcut prints and engravings that made their way across Europe. A woodcut by the Swiss
artist Jost Amman portrays a gondola with a fore and aft oarlock, rowed by two oarsmen,
in “Grand Procession of the Doge of Venice,” published in Frankfurt in 1597. A sketchy
carving on an altarpiece erected by gondola makers in 1628 inside the Church of San Trov-
aso depicts the familiar arc of the gondola with its spiky iron prow decorations, the ferri ,
on either end, and a covered passenger compartment, or felze .
More elaborate oarlocks, upholstery, carving, and the peculiar asymmetrical form of
modern gondolas, which allows for more effective rowing, all developed from the 1700s
onward. Since the late 1800s, gondola makers have made the left side of the boat wider
than the right, giving the correct counterbalance to the force created by a single gondolier
and allowing him to row through crowded spaces only from the right side, and without lift-
ing his oar from the water.
From the beginning, members of the boat-making guilds abided by a set of strict social
codes as well as an impressive body of written rules called the mariregole . These rules
governed integral aspects of the boat makers' lives: everything from regulating their ap-
prentices and salaries to dowering their daughters, ministering to their sick, providing for
their retired, and burying their dead. Above all, it was expected that a son would follow
in his father's footsteps, and pass the torch of the gondola-building traditions of the family
squero to the next generation.