Cornice, Italian (Venetian) from Palazzo Benci-Zecchini, 1581-1621, carved wood

Cornice in 15 sections (plus various fragments). Each section of L shape, consisting of a frieze element and a soffit element (nailed, with later screws and additional brackets). Uniting the frieze and soffit are paired consoles. Each carved console has a scrolling foot, the front with a mask (varied, grimacing and old, or young and calm) above a swag of fruit. On the soffit between the pairs of consoles is a turned pendant boss, and flanking the consoles is a cartouche containing a stylised flower head. On the frieze between the pairs of consoles are oval cartouches with stylised flower head, and flanking each pair of consoles is a horizontal cartouche containing a winged cherub head on the frieze. Applied ovolo mouldings link (and surround) each console, the faces carved with egg and dart. A cyma and ovolo? moulding runs along the lower edge of the freize, below which is a plain band, edged at the top with beading and below with a lunette-carved moulding. Below this a narrow thin tongue of wood is visible.

On the reverse are various larger holes (possibly for double-headed nails).
A stain appears to have been applied, possibly to give the effect of walnut.

Bought from the Managers of the Guarantee Fund for purchasing the Collection of Monsieur Soulages of Toulouse for £50


'From the Palazzo Bensi Ceccini, Venice. About 1560. Carved pine wood. H. 2' 1" L. 78' 6"'

Translated from Elena Bassi, Palazzi di Venezia: Admiranda urbis Venetae, (Venice 1980), pp. 308-313

Palazzo Benci, Madonna dell'Orto.
[Occupiers] Leoncini, Mazzi, Tentor-Girardi, Girardi-Zecchini, Maffetti-Zecchini, Benci-Zecchini, Congregazione di Carità, Case di Cura Fatebenefratelli.
[Location] Fondamenta Madonna dell'Orto, 3458 (CN).

Visentini dedicates six drawings to Palazzo Benci, illustrating not only the building but also the door and the well situated in the courtyard. Such a number of drawings in the Admiranda is reserved only for monuments of exceptional interests, as Corner of Ca' Grande (I, 5-8), Grimani of San Luca (I, 31-34), Pesaro (I, 41-46), Tron (I, 45-48), Morosini of San Canciano (I, 87-90) and Trevisan of Murano (II, 83-86).

The drawings help us to know the arrangement(?)of the fabric but leave some questions about its history. Archival information says that a palace of the Famiglia Leoncini situated in the fondo of Fondamenta della Madonna dell'Orto towards Marghera was bought twice, between 1574 and 1575, by the brothers Zuan Antonio and Lorenzo Girardi of Bergamo, whose family had become extremely rich in Venice. Previously they were known as Tentor, perhaps indicating their main activity [ ]: in 1566 they took Girardi as their surname, and subsequently also Zecchini, which as an obligation was to be transmitted to all the descendants, the female line as well. In 1581 the Girardi bought another property in the Madonna dell'Orto, and started the works for the palace illustrated in the Admiranda on most of the area; beside the palace, the family had two more residencies, one big and one small.
In 1621 Francesco son of Zuan Antonio, and Giacomo and Girolamo sons of Lorenzo, divided the property: of what they owned at the Madonna dell'Orto, Francesco keeps the small and the big house, the two cousins keep the big palace where works were in progress; they were to have it at their disposal from 1622.
In 1658, due to the extinction of one of two branches, the Giradi-Zecchini reunited all their properties, which passing by the female line reach the Benci-Zecchini. Finally, in 1837 Elisabetta Casser (widow Benci-Zecchini) leaves all her belongings to the Congregation of Charity. Nowadays the Fatebenefratelli Hospital occupies the Madonna dell'Orto palace, and the transformation imposed by the new insertion renders difficult the reconstruction of the important monument that we are trying to trace.
Zuan Antonio and Lorenzo Tentor-Girardi-Zecchini decided in 1581 to build for themselves a large residence, lavish and modern, with a main façade on the Fondamenta, to replace the 14th century one previously belonging to the Leoncini family, and with the long side (fianco lungo) extended also instead of pre-existent allotments, overlooking the rio nowadays called Zecchini.
The unknown writer of the information contained in a codex in St Mark's Library writes that the importance of the family was demonstrated by the grandeur and magnificence of marbles in the interiors of the Palazzo alla Madonna dell'Orto … although unfinished in its front part, while death cut the advancement, and the marbles prepared for the façade were sold by the descendants to Ca' Pesaro to build Palazzo in San Stae.
Probably the works for the building took place between 1581 and 1621; then the Girardi-Zecchini' first generation disappeared, the cousin-heirs, while dividing the Santa Maria dell'Orto property were not interested any longer in completing the large princely residence. The long side on the rio, and the refurbishment of the courtyard and the secondary façade that was overlooking it were almost completed. The interiors and the façade of the 14th century palazzetto once belonging to the Leoncini had not yet been renewed. The remaining material was sold subsequently to Longhena for Ca' Pesaro, and because the works for the palace in San Stae were already fully developed in 1659 when the doge Leonardo Pesaro died one can suppose that the stones were sold by Laura Girardi-Zecchini who inherited the palace in 1649.
Facing the rio the palace was renewed also in its gothic part, which had such effect that it is possible to see a difference in level in the eave line (linea di gronda). The corners of the long side were constructed within beautiful chained(?) stones, and very similar materials were utilized unsparingly for the skirting (basamento), the window frames, the wide openings in the staircase and the elongated brackets (mensoloni).
Some building elements make one imagine that balconies were also provided on the rio as well. The sinuous brackets, the little roofs projecting on the windows can be seen in many buildings built in Venice between the end of 16th and the beginning of the 17th century.
From the sumptuous water gate one enters a boathouse inside the palace from which the staircase, the atrium and the grand courtyard can be accessed; this is the last example left in the city of a cavana (sort of Venetian "garage" for boats or moorings for gondolas) inside a palace. It was also possible to access the courtyard from a gate with steps (both destroyed to realize a new wing of the hospital); of this gate Visentini has left a drawing.
The incomplete façade overlooking the courtyard is completely covered by smooth ashlar like the Pisani in Santo Stefano (II, 1-2) and the Mocenigo of the Giudecca (II, 81-82); in fact, the Benci belongs to the same period as well and can be attributed to the architects Contini, perhaps Francesco, proto (Venetian architect or superintendant of a building site) of famous families such as the Mocenigo (I, 23-24). The windows superimposed like a column are linked with the ground floor and mezzanine by decoration with diamond-pointed ashlars and pyramids which can be found also in other parts of the palace and in the villa-castle of Caerano in the vicinity of Montebelluna, built by the Girardi, which subsequently passed to the Benci-Zecchini and then to the Congregation of Charity. We find again this singular motive with some variants in the mezzanine of Ca' Pesaro; the frieze with running dogs (cani correnti) is also utilized in the Benci Palace below the ground floor windows, and in Ca' Pesaro in the skirting: those ornaments date back to Serlio.
The wide loggie with round arches are an element frequently repeated in the facades overlooking courtyards or gardens in 17th century palaces; in fact we can see it, although with variants in Ca' Pesaro as well as Ca' Rezzonico: but the Benci was one of the first examples. The sculpted heads are well characterized in the prospect and in the arch, which originally stood as a background for the well. The courtyard still conserves the boundary wall surmounted by decorations, which seem copied from Serlio, and here the windows are the same of those on the ground floor.
On the opposite side, in the courtyard, still remain two small buildings linked by a terrace supported by Doric columns: they are the two casini, where we can find similar windows, with a richer decoration; very robust doorways with a triangular tympanum introduce rather modestly sized spaces. This side of the courtyard has been partly preserved, although it has suffered unnecessary alterations.
In the Admiranda, the courtyard is surveyed both in the overall plan of the palace and in the table which serves for the purpose; both the drawings are approximate in the measurements, but they witness the importance given to these parts of the construction.
In the elevation the two casini are very different from the plan; covered by an intro-flexed(?) roof, they are surmounted by an obelisk of outstanding proportions, which develops the decorative motive recurrent in all the window friezes.
Nowadays the top is surmounted only by a spire and we do not know if this is all that remains of an obelisk; in the villa-castle of Caerano belonging to the same owners, obelisks and spires also appear, and were obviously appreciated by the Girardi-Zecchini.
Another drawing is dedicated to the well, which according to the survey plan seems located in the courtyard opposite to the gateway on the rio; the arch already existent in the background of the well has been transformed in the doorway of the boundary wall, derived from the tympanum, but overall still recognizable.
The Visentini plan refers only to the new part and not to the 14th century work; the unusual(?) atrium is divided in three spans by pilaster and columns, with a staircase ascending to the first floor and another one descending to the cavana.
The scarce information remaining and the drawings from the Admiranda help us understand that the Girardi-Zecchini had to refurbish the gentlemanly palace in a similar way to the Ca' Trevisan in Murano (II, 83-86), to the Morosini (then Erizzo) in campo San Canciano (I, 87-90); subsequently, Ca' Pesaro (I, 41-44) and Ca' Rezzonico (I, 17-20) would have a similar development.
Given our current knowledge, this unfinished design is of uncertain authorship; some characteristics can be found in Francesco Contini, in Manopola, in Scamozzi, and also in the young Longhena.
The decorative elements derive from Serlio, while the constructive ones, partly from the local building industry of second half of the 16th century. The invention can be classified with some others of the period in which rich owners abandoned the frescoed decoration which did not last long, and preferred building solid residences covered in ornate stone, with sculpted decorations that timidly announced the sumptuous solutions of Longhena, Sardi and Rossi.

This section forms part of a cornice that measures 24m (78') in total. Cornices of this kind were popular within Venetian interiors, often forming the upper part of a continuous frieze running around the top of the wall just below the ceiling, which might be decorated with painted scenes. It is likely that the imaginative carving – alternating heads of young and old women and children with scrolls, cherubs and flowers – would have been designed to be painted and gilded. The palazzo for which they were made – now Palazzo Benci – was never completed, and this might explain their unfinished state.

8441N-1863