Gondola Prow thumbnail 1
Gondola Prow thumbnail 2
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Europe 1600-1815, Room 2a

Gondola Prow

1600-1700 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This is a rare surviving example of a seventeenth-century gondola iron from Venice. Gondolas are shallow-bottomed boats that navigate the shallow, calm Venetian canals. Their prows and sterns were not designed to withstand heavy seas, and so could be elaborate and decorative displays of the blacksmith's art. They were also kept highly polished. The English diarist John Evelyn (1620-1706) visited Venice in 1645 and described gondolas as 'very long and narrow, having necks and tailes of steele, somewhat spreading at the beake like a fishes taile, and kept so exceedingly polish'd as gives a wonderfull lustre'. This example recalls the prow iron of an ambassadorial gondola sketched by the Venetian artist Francesco Guardi (1712-1793) (the drawing is in the Museo Correr, Venice). Although a characteristically Venetian vessel, gondolas were not unknown on the Thames in the late seventeenth century. Two gondolas are depicted close to the King's barge in the engraving by Dirk Stoop of the procession of boats that accompanied Charles II and his new bride Catherine of Braganza, as they travelled from Hampton Court to the Palace of Whitehall in August 1662. Later that year, the Venetian diplomat Francesco Giavarrina presented Charles with a pair of gondolas, and he recorded how the king was impressed by the grace and lightness of the boats, and with the skill of the gondoliers.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Wrought iron, pierced and engraved
Brief description
Gondola prow, wrought iron, pierced and engraved Venice, 17th century
Physical description
Gondola prow of wrought iron in the form of a flat pattern of foliage, dolphins, tritons and amorous figures, pierced and engraved; crook shaped top cut with leaves and animals.
Dimensions
  • Height: 900mm (approximate)
  • Width: 940mm (approximate)
  • Depth: 35mm (approximate)
Gallery label
Subjects depicted
Summary
This is a rare surviving example of a seventeenth-century gondola iron from Venice. Gondolas are shallow-bottomed boats that navigate the shallow, calm Venetian canals. Their prows and sterns were not designed to withstand heavy seas, and so could be elaborate and decorative displays of the blacksmith's art. They were also kept highly polished. The English diarist John Evelyn (1620-1706) visited Venice in 1645 and described gondolas as 'very long and narrow, having necks and tailes of steele, somewhat spreading at the beake like a fishes taile, and kept so exceedingly polish'd as gives a wonderfull lustre'. This example recalls the prow iron of an ambassadorial gondola sketched by the Venetian artist Francesco Guardi (1712-1793) (the drawing is in the Museo Correr, Venice). Although a characteristically Venetian vessel, gondolas were not unknown on the Thames in the late seventeenth century. Two gondolas are depicted close to the King's barge in the engraving by Dirk Stoop of the procession of boats that accompanied Charles II and his new bride Catherine of Braganza, as they travelled from Hampton Court to the Palace of Whitehall in August 1662. Later that year, the Venetian diplomat Francesco Giavarrina presented Charles with a pair of gondolas, and he recorded how the king was impressed by the grace and lightness of the boats, and with the skill of the gondoliers.
Associated object
345-1880 (Object)
Bibliographic references
  • Campbell, Marian. Decorative Ironwork. London: V&A Publications, 1997. ISBN: 1851771964
  • Gardner, John Starkie. Ironwork. Part 2: Continental ironwork of the renaissance and later periods. London, 1896. p.21
  • Rubin de Cervin, G. B. The Evolution of the Venetian Gondola. The Mariners Mirror. 42.3 (August 1956), pp. 201-18
  • Campbell, Marian. An Introduction to Ironwork. London: HMSO, 1985. ISBN: 0112904157
  • Evelyn, John. Diary Now first printed in full from the manuscripts belonging to Mr. John Evelyn, ed. by E. S. de Beer. 6 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955.
  • Doran, Susan, ed., with Robert J. Blyth. Royal River. Power, Pageantry & the Thames. Catalogue of the exhibition held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, 27 April - 9 September 2012. London: Scala 2012. ISBN 9781857597004
  • Pedrini, Augusto. Il ferro battuto, sbalzato e cesellato nell' arte italiana dal secolo undicesimo al secolo diciottesimo. Milan: Hoepli, 1929
Collection
Accession number
9091-1863

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
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