Palazzo Corner Spinelli is a palace in Venice, located in the San Marco district and overlooking the Grand Canal, in front of Palazzo Querini Dubois. It is often referred to as the emblem of the transition from Gothic to Renaissance architecture in Venetian art.
Traditionally the building is attributed to Mauro Codussi, starting from the hypothesis of Pietro Paoletti of 1897; but recent studies have posed the problem of attribution, going so far as to deny Paoletti's hypothesis and attributing the construction to workers, yes Codussian, but certainly not to Mauro himself: the compositional language of the facade does not, in fact, respond to the precise architectural compositions which Codussi had already demonstrated.
The house was commissioned by the Lando family: it was built on an
uncertain date, but between 1480 and 1490. In 1542 it was sold, due to
the disastrous economic situation of the Lando family and in particular
of Pietro Lando, archbishop of Candia. It passed to the Corner family,
who entrusted Michele Sanmicheli and Giorgio Vasari with the task of
modernizing the interior of the building. The facade was preserved,
while the entire rear was rebuilt. The interventions relating to the
interiors can be traced back to the new classical style: use of columns
and round arches, as well as the insertion of fireplaces in all the main
rooms. A peculiarity is that the bedroom of the client, Giovanni
Cornaro, has gilding in the wooden parts.
From 1740 to 1810 the
mansion was rented to the Spinelli family: later, it was bought by the
Cornoldi family. In 1850 it became the property of the dancer Maria
Taglioni, who also owned Palazzo Giustinian Lolin, Palazzo Barzizza and
the Ca' d'Oro.
Palazzo Corner Spinelli is an example of the transition from the
Gothic forms, predominant in Venice until the fifteenth century, to the
new Renaissance lines, which, specifically, recall those of the coeval
Ca' Vendramin Calergi.
The facade on the canal is symmetrical,
open to the noble floors by four round arched mullioned windows per
floor and cut by stringcourses, which highlight the three levels of
which the building is made up. Peculiar elements of the architecture of
this building are the pear-shaped windows, which divide the two holes of
the mullioned windows and the trefoil balconies in a Gothic style.
On the ground floor, the external surface is embellished with ashlar
work, with a round arched portal in the centre. Internally the building
retains a sixteenth-century fireplace, the work of Jacopo Sansovino.