Palazzo Corner della Ca' Granda or Ca' Corner della Ca' Granda or simply Ca' Corner is an imposing Renaissance palace in Venice, located in the San Marco district and overlooking the Grand Canal between Palazzo Minotto and the Casina delle Rose. It is the seat of the Metropolitan City of Venice and of the Prefecture.
Ca' Corner was designed by Jacopo Sansovino, after a fire in 1532 had
destroyed the previous residence of the Corners, Palazzo Malombra, whose
presence is testified by a sixteenth-century plan created by Jacopo de'
Barbari. The chronicle of this fire was reported by Marin Sanudo. It was
one of the very first assignments received in the lagoon by the famous
architect.
In 1817, after another fire, the building was ceded by
Andrea Corner to the Austrian Empire, which placed the Imperial Royal
Provincial Delegation there and later also the Imperial Royal
Lieutenancy, corresponding to the Prefecture.
Later, when the city
was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, it maintained the same destination,
still in force today.
Distinguished by a monumentality already highlighted by the name
Ca'Granda, with its monumentality it breaks the sequence of neighboring
buildings and exemplifies the innovativeness of the genius of its
designer, Jacopo Sansovino. Situated in a prestigious position not far
from Piazza San Marco
PLAN: The elongated lot does not define a
centric shape, the building appears as an almost rectangular cube with a
courtyard to the north.
FACADE: The building has a well-finished
facade on the Grand Canal, divided into three orders[2] and around the
courtyard, a typical Bramante reference with reference to the Latin
experience.
The architect left the lower area (1st order)
decorated with rustication; and he gave rhythm to the upper floors with
a series of arches that amplify the chiaroscuro effect of the building,
denouncing the classical matrix, where voids prevail over solids:
- on the 2nd order windows inserted in arches with a balustrade, and
interspersed with pairs of Ionic columns (decorative) which rest on a
base and support an entablature.
- on the 3rd order windows
inserted in arches with balustrade, and interspersed with pairs of
Corinthian columns (decorative) which rest on a base and support an
entablature with elliptical windows inserted in the frieze.
The
whole is thus modulated by the scanning of light on two different
levels, which shows the attention to the tonal value of the surfaces in
harmony with Venetian tonal Mannerist painting.
The vertical
tripartition of the typically Venetian facade can be identified only in
the central portico and in the balcony that joins the three windows
above.
We can speak of a fusion of two architectural realities:
the Roman neo-palatial typology and the Venetian conception whereby
columns, lintels and arches return to having a load-bearing function.