Grimani a Santa Maria Formosa Palace
palazzi - index
General remarks:
| Date: | 1530s ? |
| Address: | Castello 4858 |
| Current use: | currently converted into a museum |
| Overview map: | locate |
Description:
Palazzo Grimani with its quadratic courtyard has evident references to roman renaissance architecture, but the façade composition with a loggia (though not covering a real portego in this case) is venetian. The so-called tribuna, a room with the height of two floors where the word-famous Grimani collection of antique sculptures was once exposed in alcoves and on cornices, is the architectural apogee of the interior. Cardinal Giovanni Grimani commissioned in 1537 and from 1560 on the interior decorations which are the most valuable renaissance rooms in a private palace that are conserved today. Frescoes on mythological subjects (rooms decidated to Callisto, Apollo) were created, among other artists, by Giovanni da Udine and (probably) Francesco Salviati and Camillo Mantovano. Several archetypes in Rome, both from the ancient world and the renaissance, were recognized by the scholars. Perhaps the Scala d'Oro in the Doge's palace served as a model for the grand stairway with a richly ornated vaulting that is unusual for a private venetian residence, but show clearly the claim of the commissioners.
The Grimani S. Maria Formosa possessed the Teatro Grimani at Santi Giovanni e Paolo on the Rio della Panada, active at least from 1639 to 1715.
Related buildings
Literature
Huse/Wolters (1996) pp. 69, 82, 83, 166
Wolters (2000) pp. 19, 27, 132, 137-140, 188 s., 207, 212, 237, 250ss.
De' Marchi, Andrea: Francesco Salviati's ceiling painting for Palazzo Grimani rediscovered, in: Apollo 503.2004, pp. 8-13
Favaretto, Irene: "Una tribuna ricca di marmi...": appunti per una storia delle collezioni dei Grimani di Santa Maria Formosa, in Aquileia Nostra 55.1984, 206-239
External resources
© 1999-2007 J.-Ch. Rößler
Venice architecture - palaces
