The Palazzo Ducale was the seat and symbol of the government of the Republic of Venice. Thanks to a tenacious determination, Tintoretto managed to acquire a position among the painters responsible for the decoration of its halls, the most important and prestigious of the city. The works painted in the 1550s and 1560s were almost all destroyed – along with those of other great artists – in two fires in 1574 and in 1577. What survived of Tintoretto’s work was the ceiling of the Atrio Quadrato (1562-1565). After the fires, the artist participated very actively, with his workshop, in the new decoration of the building. A tour of the palace “in the footsteps” of Tintoretto starts from the Atrio Quadrato, the first great hall to be reached from the Scala d’Oro (Golden Staircase); it continues in the Sala delle Quattro Porte (Room of the Four Doors), where the ceiling preserves the artist’s only frescoes still visible even if almost completely repainted, and then in the Sala dell’Anticollegio, where four splendid allegories of the virtues of the Republic’s good government are usually on show (◄ two of them will be present in the American edition of the exhibition). The itinerary then leads to the Sala del Collegio, containing four large devotional paintings of doges by Tintoretto; two others are displayed in the adjoining Sala del Senato, where, on the ceiling, one can see the famous Triumph of Venice as Queen of the Seas (1581-84). Going down to the first floor, the imposing Sala del Maggior Consiglio is dominated by the huge canvas of Paradise, painted by Tintoretto with his son Domenico (1588-92), but the artist is also present on the ceiling with the great narrative of the Voluntary submission of the provinces to Venetian domination (Triumph of Doge Nicolò Da Ponte) (1579) and four other episodes of the city’s history. Finally, in the Sala dello Scrutinio, Tintoretto is present with the dynamic Battle of Zara (1584). Also worthy of note is The Return of the Prodigal Son (1570-75) decorating the ceiling of the Sala degli Inquisitori, accessible to the public only via the Secret Itineraries tour.
from 1 April to 31 October, 8.30 a.m. – 7 p.m.; from 1 November to 31 March, 8.30 a.m. – 5.30 p.m. (ticket office closes one hour before). Combined ticket with Museo Correr and Monumental Halls of the Biblioteca Marciana.
www.palazzoducale.visitmuve.it