ARCHITECT, Italian
(active 1455-1471 in Rome)

Exterior view

1455-71
Photo
Palazzo Venezia, Rome

Pope Paul II (1464-1471) was concerned to promote the magnificence of Rome and the status of the papacy by various means, including a programme of building and restoration. In 1455, while still a cardinal, he began to rebuild his titular church of San Marco and the adjoining palace (later renamed the Palazzo Venezia) that became his principal residence in 1466 and was completed in 1471. Together with the benediction loggia at St Peter's (c. 1461–95), begun by Pius II, these were the first buildings in Rome where the rules of Vitruvius were applied, and the Gothic tradition was broken. In the benediction loggia, the façade of San Marco (c. 1460–65) and the few bays that were built of the courtyard (c. 1470) of the Palazzo Venezia, a system of arcades inspired by antique prototypes made its first appearance in Rome. Though the designer of this system is not known - a case has been made for Bernardo Rossellino and Giuliano da Maiano - the concept was probably Leon Battista Alberti's.

The Palazzo Venezia marked the transition in Rome from medieval fortress to Renaissance palace. Although its exterior is severe and forbidding, its magnificent and luxurious interior housed collections of Byzantine icons, ivory-carvings, mosaics and vestments; Flemish tapestries; Florentine goldsmiths' works and an extensive hoard of antiquities: cameos, intaglios, gold and silver coins and bronzes. Much of this last later came into the possession of Lorenzo de' Medici ('il Magnifico').

At present, the building houses the Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia, containing galleries of art, predominantly pottery, tapestry, statuary from the early Christian era up to early Renaissance.

The photo shows the façade facing Piazza Venezia.

View the ground plan of Palazzo Venezia, Rome.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.