Relief panel showing ornamental trophies. 19th century plaster cast after Italian original, dated 1485-1500, by Antonio Rizzo and assistants. From the Scala dei Giganti, Ducal Palace, Venice.

Relief panel showing ornamental trophies

The Scala dei Giganti leads from the court to the first floor of the Ducal palace in Venice, and was used as the platform for the Doge's coronation, for the official receptions of foreign diplomats, and for public announcements. The staircase was built by Antonio Rizzo, who was awarded the commission and title of protomaestro by Doge Giovanni Mocenigo (1478-1485) in May 1484 after a fire on September 14, 1483 destroyed the ducal apartments in the East Wing of the palace. The name, 'Giants' Staircase', comes from the two colossal statues at the top, carved by Jacopo Sansovino in 1566.

By the late 16th century, contemporary historians had forgotten that Rizzo was responsible for the Scala dei Giganti. In his 1581 guide to Venice, Francesco Sansovino identified Antonio Bregno as the designer of the staircase. He also suggested that the brothers Domencino and Bernardino da Mantova had designed and completed the panel reliefs on the staircase. Rizzo's name was not re-discovered until 1837, when Giuseppe Cadorin published documents showing that Rizzo had indeed been protomaestro of the palace during the reign of Agostino Barbarigo (1486-1501). In 1908, Adolfo Venturi proposed that most of the project was completed by Pietro Lombardo, who succeeded Rizzo as protomaestro, with assistance from his workshop, particularly on the decorations (1908, pp. 1088, 1090). The attribution of the relief panels to Domencino and Bernardino da Mantova was accepted by Wornum in his 1854 catalogue of casts at the V&A (p. 24). Most contemporary scholars concur that Rizzo designed the reliefs, and that they were executed by him and assistants. It has been proposed that the trophies and other decorative details of the reliefs may pay tribute to the Venetian state, or honour the reign of Doge Barbarigo (Muraro, 1960 pp. 354, 359).

This cast was part of the collection of 487 fragments purchased in 1851 from the Schools of Design. These casts served as models of design for the schools' students.

The first Government School of Design was established in London in 1837 at Somerset House. From 1837 to 1851, eighteen more schools were founded in provincial cities such as Manchester and Birmingham. The schools were set up by a government Committee on Arts and Manufactures 'for the purpose of affording Instruction to those engaged in the practice of ornamental Art, and the preparation of Designs for the various Manufactures of this country' (Wainwright 2002, p. 5). The Committee immediately began acquiring a collection of plaster casts for the schools, so that their students could copy and sketch from the best examples of ancient and modern ornamental art. After his substantial contribution towards the organization of the 1851 Great Exhibition of modern British manufactures, Henry Cole was appointed the Head of the Schools of Design in 1852. He expanded the school's collection to include not only casts, but also electrotypes, modern drawings, and decorative art for a new museum that could be visited by the public. This museum, the South Kensington Museum, the precursor of the Victoria and Albert Museum, first opened at Marlborough House in 1852.

19th century copy of 15th century Italian original

This relief, showing trophy motifs, comes from the Scala dei Giganti, or Giants' Staircase at the Ducal Palace, in Venice. The Scala dei Giganti leads from the court to the first floor of the Ducal palace in Venice, and was used as the platform for the Doge's coronation, for the official receptions of foreign diplomats, and for public announcements. The staircase was built by Antonio Rizzo, who was awarded the commission and title of protomaestro by Doge Giovanni Mocenigo (1478-1485) in May 1484 after a fire on September 14, 1483 destroyed the ducal apartments in the East Wing of the palace. The name, 'Giants' Staircase', comes from the two colossal statues at the top, carved by Jacopo Sansovino in 1566.

REPRO.1851-420