Ca' Bembo is a building of historic-artistic value dating back to the
16th century on the Rio San Trovaso in the parish of San Trovaso,
Dorsoduro district in Venice, and notable for a particularly large
garden.
Despite the name, it has no particular connection with
the history of the Bembo family and is instead linked to one of the
branches of the Venetian aristocratic family of the Barbarigo di San
Trovaso and in particular to the figure of Agostino Barbarigo.
The area that today houses the palace was occupied, in the Middle
Ages, by a housing complex attributable to the branch of the "Barbarigo
de Osso Duro" (or of Dorsoduro). The Barbarigos' ownership of several
houses along the San Trovaso canal is documented by a deed of ownership
subdivision of 1374. In 1464 the properties were divided between the
sons of Francesco "il Ricco" Barbarigo and the property corresponding to
the current Ca' Bembo it passed to the eldest son Girolamo Barbarigo.
Of the Gothic building owned by Girolamo, only a well curb remains
with the heraldic emblems of the Barbarigo family carved on it and
attributable to the workshop of Antonio Rizzo, dating back to the last
decades of the 15th century.
Renewal by Tintoretto and Sansovino
The palace inherited from Girolamo was the subject of a division among
heirs in 1518. In the mid-16th century it was the subject of a vast and
ambitious program of artistic and architectural renewal, wanted by
Agostino Barbarigo, nephew of Girolamo, perhaps on the occasion of his
sumptuous wedding with Lucia Pesaro on 30 April 1554.
The
transformation of the building was entrusted to Jacopo Sansovino, who,
inspired by the Renaissance works of Rome and Florence, was building the
Fabbriche Nuove di Rialto in those years. The portal and the rhythm of
the stringcourses bear his imprint, while the eclectic use of Corinthian
brackets supporting the balcony and of Doric capitals in the facade of
the noble floor have led to hypothesize interventions by others as well.
Agostino Barbarigo had also commissioned Iacopo Tintoretto, again
for the facade, a cycle of frescoes, now lost. In the 17th century, in
his Maraviglie dell'arte, the commentator Carlo Ridolfi, who wrote when
the palace no longer belonged to the Barbarigo family, noted:
«Among the fresco works, the facade of the Casa Marcello di San
Gervasio, known as San Trovaso, where Tintoretto painted four fables of
Ovid, holds the first applause. Of Jupiter, and of Semele, of Apollo
flaying Marsyas; and of the dawn taking leave of Triton; and of Cybele
crowned with towers on a chariot drawn by lions. Above he made a long
frieze, inserted with the bodies of men and naked women, so lively and
fresh that they appear alive, besides which is the most curious chain of
figures that could be invented by the Painter»
When Pietro Barbarigo, son of Agostino, died without heirs in Corfu
in 1618, after a complex series of hereditary claims, the palace passed
to the Marcello family and from this to the Sangiantoffetti family -
which gives its name to the foundations - who promoted the
reorganization and the decoration of the interiors of the building,
entrusting them to the Paduan painter Costantino Cedini.
At the
beginning of the 20th century, the building was owned by the Count,
shipowner and colonel of artillery, dr. Giuseppe Calzavara of
Castelmauro. Inherited in the late forties from his daughter, Angela
Vittoria Calzavara di Castelmauro, and sold in 1969.
The building
now houses the language department of the Ca' Foscari University of
Venice.
In November 2013 it became the subject of a controversial real estate exchange process initiated by the rector Carlo Carraro, who would like to exchange it together with Ca' Cappello and Palazzo Cosulich, with a property owned by the Uno Energia real estate fund in an equal transaction. The operation was contested by the Municipality of Venice where the transformation of the buildings into hotel structures was feared. The operation, which avoided a public auction, is currently the subject of a parliamentary question by Giulio Marcon, Davide Zoggia, Michele Mognato and Giulia Narduolo. Instead, the rector defended the disposal of the historic buildings with a view to reorganizing the accounts, announcing serious consequences for the budget for the next six years. Equally a source of controversy was the closure of the large garden, used by the nearby Ranier Michieli school due to suspected pollution. Subsequently tests carried out by private individuals revealed the presence of dioxin, but Ca' Foscari denied having previously been aware of it.