The Fontego dei Tedeschi (or, in Italian, Fondaco dei Tedeschi) is a palace in Venice, located in the San Marco district and overlooking the Grand Canal, adjacent to the Rialto Bridge.
Similarly to the Fontego dei Turchi, the Fontego dei Tedeschi is of
ancient foundation (13th century) and linked to the commercial needs of
the Republic of Venice: it was the landing point for goods transported
by German merchants from Nuremberg, Judenburg and Augusta who stored
them here. Here also the German-speaking populations who had a
dedication agreement with the Serenissima operated for their trades,
such as the inhabitants of the Altopiano dei Sette Comuni. In the late
14th century, the palace also housed the local offices of the Fugger
family, well-known German merchants and bankers.
The original
building was the victim of a devastating fire in the night between 27
and 28 January 1505, but in less than five months the Venetian Senate
had already decided to rebuild it based on a project by Girolamo
Tedesco. It was a complete reconstruction, which took place between 1505
and 1508. Unlike other palaces on the Grand Canal, it was decided not to
resort to marble decorations or fretwork elements, instead embellishing
the free backgrounds between the windows with frescoes , for which
Giorgione and his young pupil Titian were named. According to Dolce, who
wrote in 1557, Titian's Justice, painted on the side of the calle, was
so beautiful that it was mistaken for the work of the master Giorgione,
generating a conflict between the two.
In 1508 the conclusion of
the works was celebrated with a solemn mass and in the same year a
dispute over payment for Giorgione's frescoes suggests that the external
decoration was also complete. towards 1760 the frescoes were still
fairly legible, as demonstrated by a series of engravings by Anton Maria
Zanetti.
Like the other fonteghi in the city, this one too was
suppressed with the fall of the Republic in 1797.
The building
has long been owned by the Italian Post Office. Sold in 2008 to the
Benetton group for an amount of 53 million euros, it underwent a new
static and functional recovery operation, under the artistic direction
of the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, for its conversion into a shopping
center also equipped with a cultural hub, which was opened to the public
on October 1, 2016.
A large complex overlooking the Rialto Bridge, the Fontego is a
square-plan building arranged on three levels around an internal
courtyard, covered by a glass and steel structure, where the ancient
well is kept. On the ground floor, five large round arches close off a
portico in dialogue with the Grand Canal, where goods were unloaded. The
second level is crossed by a long row of mullioned windows and
single-lancet windows which correspond symmetrically to the smaller
quadrangular windows of the two floors above. The top of the building is
crenellated.
Around 1508 the façade overlooking the Grand Canal
was frescoed by Giorgione and Tiziano Vecellio, but today only a few
fragments of their work remain, deteriorated by the atmospheric agents
and by the humid and brackish climate of the lagoon, which were detached
during the 20th century and today kept in the Galleria Franchetti at the
Ca' d'Oro and in the Gallerie dell'Accademia.
The interiors also conserved priceless works by the painters Paolo
Veronese, Tiziano Vecellio and Jacopo Tintoretto, of which almost all
traces have been lost today. As evidence of the function that the
building has performed over the centuries, the numerous symbols that the
merchants engraved remain, above all on the stone of the columns, to
indicate the rooms in which to deposit the goods.
The detached
frescoes
The frescoes detached from the outside of the building
(since 1937) were kept in various locations (Palazzo Ducale, Gallerie
dell'Accademia), before being reassembled in the Ca' d'Oro.
Of
Giorgione remain the Nude in a niche and fragments of female figures. Of
Titian remain:
Stocking Companion, 241x159 cm
Judith/Justice,
212×346 cm
Fight of giants and monsters, 157x320 cm
Allegory,
157x328cm
Fighting of a putto with a dragon, 155x375 cm