Palazzo Loredan Cini is an architectural complex in Venice, located in the Dorsoduro district and overlooking the Grand Canal, between Campo San Vio and Palazzo Balbi Valier. It is reputed as the unification of two different buildings.
Built in the second half of the 16th century, it belonged to numerous
noble families: founded by the Loredan family, it then passed to the
Caldogno and Valmarana families. Between the 19th and 20th centuries it
became the residence of Charles VII, as well as the headquarters of
Carlism, and then the residence of Count Vittorio Cini, together with
Giuseppe Volpi, one of the leading industrialists of the period. He has
undoubtedly become known not only for his political activities linked to
the National Fascist Party and for his success in the financial sphere,
but also for the premature death of his son, to whom he dedicated the
Cini Foundation, and for the restoration of the complex monastery of San
Giorgio Maggiore.
In the 1980s, one of Vittorio Cini's daughters,
Yana, donated part of her father's collection and a portion of the
Palazzo (today known as Palazzo Cini) to the Giorgio Cini Foundation so
that the relationship between works and context could be guaranteed. The
Galleria di Palazzo Cini will originate from this donation.
The building, located at the confluence of the main waterway of the
city and the Rio di San Vio, has three facades, both austere and with a
clear Renaissance imprint.
Façade on the Grand Canal: devoid of
any architectural interest, spread over four floors and is characterized
by a succession of mullioned windows and single lancet windows. It was
once decorated with frescoes by Giuseppe Porta, now disappeared.
Façade on the Rio di San Vio: a full fifty meters long, it appears
divided into two sections, each of which is identified as an independent
building and corresponding to a different house number (respectively
Dorsoduro 732 and Dorsoduro 864). It looks monumental on Campo San Vio,
to which it is connected by a private bridge. The right section,
characterized by an imposing water portal and two pentafore,
communicates and integrates with the other, which has a similar impact
if it weren't for the replacement of the mullioned windows with a
serliana culminating in small quadrangular windows. The other sparse
single-lancet windows have no artistic importance, with the happy
exception of those on the noble floor, which have a round arch.
Rear
facade: overlooking the Forner swimming pool, it has columns of single
lancet windows enlivened by the presence of a serliana.