Gold leaf, ultramarine and vermilion were the most expensive pigments at the time, and the man who commissioned the palace, Procuratore Marino Contarini, was flaunting his wealth. The Contarinis were one of the most successful patrician families in Venice. Between 1043 and 1676 they provided eight Doges for the Republic. Marino failed to get elected so he set out to impress the city with his great wealth. In 1421 he prepared the siege by demolishing the Zeno Palace, which was part of the dowry brought by Marino’s wife. Between 1425 and 1434 Ca d’Oro was built in its place. The style is pure Venetian Gothic, described by some as “floral”.
Other buildings in this style are the Palazzo Barbaro and the Palazzo Giustinian, both nearby. In this case the architect was Bartolomeo Bon de Campione d’ltalla. Bon, working in partnership with his father, completed a number of important works in Venice, including the Porta della Carta in the Basilica of San Marco, with its monumental sculpture of the judgment of Solomon, the great marble door of Santa Maria dei Frari and the fine Foscari Arch of the Doge’s Palace.
The marvelous lightness of the palace arises from its eastern pinnacles and the recessed columned loggia that leads from the canal to a much more substantial entrance hall facing a small inner court into which Bon inserted an impressive well (vera di pozzo). one of its distinctive features. The palazzo has rightly been described as a cross between a medieval church and a Moorish temple, and yet, for all its finesse, it is and was always intended to be asymmetrical. The palazzo changed hands many times over the following centuries and was owned by the Marcello and Loredan families, but remained in the hands of the aristocracy until the fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797.
In the 19th century it was heavily altered by a series of new owners, including Prince Troubetzkoy, who bought it for the ballerina Maria Taglioni. Under his direction, the Gothic staircase and the balconies overlooking the inner courtyard were removed and the wellhead was sold. John Ruskin, in The Stones of Venice, declared that his interventions were an act for which he could not forgive her.
In 1894 Baron Franchetti purchased the building. He rebuilt the staircase and the balconies and restored the wellhead of Bartolomeo Bon. He also compiled a rich art collection that he bequeathed to the state, along with this palace, after his death in 1922. Today, the Galleria Giorgio Franchetti is open to the public. It contains some fairly routine Tintorettos and Titians, but Mantegna’s Saint Sebastian on the first floor is a must. Look out for Bartolo’s Coronation of the Virgin, Lombardo’s Young Couple, and Antonio da Firenze’s Tale of Lucretia.