Ca' del Duca is a Venetian palace located in the San Marco district and overlooking the Grand Canal next to Palazzo Falier where the Rio del Duca flows into. The ground door is located in the Corte del Duca, also known as the Corte del Duca Sforza.
The building project was entrusted to Bartolomeo Bon by Marco
Cornaro, father of Caterina Cornaro: the construction of a building so
large that it could house the largest reception hall in the city had
been planned. Not yet finished, it was sold in 1461 to Francesco Sforza
who entrusted its grandiose reconstruction to Antonio Averulino. Before
the project could be implemented, however, the Palazzo was expropriated
due to the rivalry that had arisen between the Serenissima Republic of
Venice and the Duchy of Milan. A second renovation project was entrusted
to Jacopo Sansovino by the Procurator of San Marco Vittore Grimani: not
even this time the project saw the light of day.
During the 1620s
it was used as a studio by Titian, who made many of the canvases
intended for the decoration of Palazzo Ducale. In 1618 Alfonso de la
Cueva-Benavides y Mendoza-Carrillo, a Spanish nobleman who went to
Venice as ambassador, settled there: he was forced to flee because he
was involved in the Bedmar Conspiracy, hatched against the Serenissima.
In 2011 the building hosted the Luxembourg Pavilion on the occasion
of the 54th Art Biennale.
The building is characterized by the presence of three facades: one
insists on the Grand Canal, one on the Rio del Duca and one on the Corte
del Duca.
The main facade of the Palace, dating back to the 19th
century, appears visibly unfinished in its expressive simplicity. The
only remaining elements of the ancient building are two mighty column
trunks, a diamond-shaped ashlar base, water portals and ground floor
windows: all these elements decorate the side façade on the homonymous
stream. The facade overlooking the courtyard, while appearing imposing
due to its extension, does not have any valuable elements.