The Palazzi Mocenigo are an architectural complex in Venice, located
in the San Marco district and overlooking the Grand Canal between
Palazzo Contarini delle Figure and Palazzo Corner Gheltof, opposite
Palazzo Civran Grimani.
The complex, characterized by a long and
uneven facade, is made up of four buildings, which we arrange from left
to right in the sequence of facades: Palazzo Mocenigo Casa Nuova, made
up of Palazzo Mocenigo "Il Nero" and two lower buildings (for the
absence of the second noble floor) and Palazzo Mocenigo Casa Vecchia.
Palazzo Mocenigo "Il Nero" and the other two adjacent buildings once
formed a single residence, while Palazzo Mocenigo Casa Vecchia was the
home of a second branch of the Mocenigo family.
Palazzo Mocenigo Ca' Vecchia is the first building from the right,
bordering Palazzo Contarini delle Figure.
History
Despite the
name of Ca' Vecchia, it is the most recent of the complex since it was
rebuilt on the basis of the previous medieval factory, built in the
fifteenth century. It was the first property of the Mocenigo family in
the parish of San Samuele. This branch of the Mocenigo family,
interested in culture, politics, philosophy and economics, was able to
host famous personalities. Between 1591 and 1592 the philosopher
Giordano Bruno stayed in the building. He was reported to the
authorities by the landlord himself. The renovation was carried out in
the 17th century, more precisely between 1623 and 1625, based on a
project by the architect Francesco Contin. This intervention was not
excessively invasive, and went on to maintain numerous aspects of the
previous building, such as the original plan and some pointed arch
windows, prevalent in the rear and side facades but absent in the main
one. Other prestigious guests were more recently Thomas Moore and Lord
Byron.
Once in precarious conditions, it has been renovated and
divided into several properties. The facade, once yellow, has been
painted and appears white.
Architecture
The structure has a
simple appearance: the building is spread over four floors, divided by
solid frames, of which a ground floor with a water portal flanked by
large single-lancet windows, an attic mezzanine and two main floors very
similar in appearance. It should be noted that there is no mezzanine
between the ground floor and the main floor. The noble floors,
differentiated only by the different shape of the balcony, projecting
only on the first floor, are distinguished by a three-mullioned window,
each flanked by two pairs of single-lancet windows with a non-projecting
balcony. The key of the various arches is decorated with a human head.
Once the structure culminated in two obelisks, as evidenced by the
prints of the time, then demolished for unknown reasons.
They are two buildings in the complex, between Ca' Vecchia and
Palazzo Mocenigo, the so-called 'The black'.
History
The
Mocenigos already owned the two palaces Ca' Vecchia and Nero when,
at the end of the 16th century, they had these two new palaces built
by joining the two already existing ones. They were enriched, above
all during the 18th century, with very valuable furnishings,
unfortunately largely lost in the 1930s. Just to name a few, the
nine canvases by Sebastiano Ricci representing the Gods of Olympus,
which decorated the ceiling of one of the rooms on the main floor of
the building on the left, sold in 1941 and are now part of the
collection of the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin; Gian Battista Tiepolo's
canvas Virtue and Nobility Crown Love, now in the Museum of Fine
Arts in Boston, sold in 1937, from the ceiling of one of the rooms
on the mezzanine floor of the Palazzo on the right; the sketch of
Paradise in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio of the Doge's Palace by
Tintoretto, formerly on the main floor of the Right Palace and today
in Madrid. The ceiling fresco by Jacopo Guarana Minerva drives away
the Vices from the Garden of Virtue and the frescoes that Pier
Antonio Novelli executed on the occasion of the wedding of Alvise
Mocenigo and Lucia Memmo are conserved on the same noble floor. The
English poet Lord Byron lived and wrote for a few years on this same
noble floor, as the plaque on the facade reminds us, although
located at the same level as the mezzanine floor of the building on
the left during his stay in Venice from 1816 to 1819, with 14
servants , 2 monkeys, a fox and a wolf, as well as 2 dogs and
various birds.
Architecture
They present a rather simple
architectural language, with a clear Renaissance matrix, where the
main floor is the founding element of the composition. It,
characterized by a central serliana flanked by single lancet
windows, is repeated according to the same pattern for both the one
and the other building, creating a strong sensation of symmetry. The
holes are decorated with bas-reliefs.
Very valuable elements
of the composition were also the monumental fireplaces, demolished
around the middle of the 19th century and the frescoes on the
facades, the latter made by Benedetto Caliari and Giuseppe Alabardi
which, similarly to those present in the other civil buildings in
the city, disappeared between the 18th and the 19th century. The
only traces of them come to us thanks to the prints of Luca
Carlevarijs. On the back there is a large garden, on which there is
a facade with serliane similar to those on the Grand Canal side.
Palazzo Mocenigo Ca' Nova, known as Il Nero, is the building on the
far left of the complex: it is probably the one that has the facade with
the greatest visual impact.
History
It was mainly used for
receptions (as evidenced by the large atrium and the monumental
staircase). One of the most sumptuous was the one in honor of Alvise
Mocenigo, victorious doge during the battle of Lepanto. It was built in
place of a previous building dating back to the second half of the 15th
century. The reconstruction was not completed by 1579. In 1716 Pisana
Cornaro Mocenigo received the King of Poland Frederick Augustus III with
a sumptuous party. The property passed by inheritance in the first
quarter of the 1900s to the Robilants who, after having dispersed the
furniture and fittings, sold it in a short time.
Architecture
The facade is difficult to attribute: belonging to the Renaissance
period, it appears inspired by Palladio due to the presence of columns
and capitals, but, despite this, it is often attributed to Alessandro
Vittoria, who certainly also designed Palazzo Balbi, very similar in
terms of decoration. Authorship has also been attributed to Guglielmo
dei Grigi or Giovanni Antonio Rusconi.
The facade is
characterized by the grandeur of the three central openings: the water
portal, surrounded by four small windows, and the two superimposed
serliane, adorned by means of a jutting balcony. On the sides there are
large single lancet windows with triangular and curved tympanums. All
the elements are contained in a complex design of frames and profiles,
which marks the facade and gives it dynamism. The facade was once
dominated by two obelisks, later demolished.
On the back there
are two courtyards connected to a garden by a monumental underpass whose
vanishing point corresponds to the rear door of the building. The top
floor was terraced at a later time, as also happened in Palazzo Pisani
Moretta.