The Doge of Venice was the highest role of authority within the Republic of Venice. The word Doge derives from the Latin Dux, meaning "leader," originally referring to any military leader, becoming in the Late Roman Empire the title for a leader of an expeditionary force formed by detachments from the frontier army, separate from, but subject to, the governor of a province, authorized to conduct operations beyond provincial boundaries.
Piazza San Marco, often known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as la Piazza. The Piazzetta is an extension of the Piazza towards San Marco basin in its southeast corner. The two spaces together form the social, religious and political centre of Venice and are referred to together. This article relates to both of them.
The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark, commonly known as St Mark's Basilica, is the cathedral church of the Patriarchate of Venice; it became the episcopal seat of the Patriarch of Venice in 1807, replacing the earlier cathedral of San Pietro di Castello. It is dedicated to and holds the relics of Saint Mark the Evangelist, the patron saint of the city.
Jacopo d'Antonio Sansovino was an Italian Renaissance sculptor and architect, best known for his works around the Piazza San Marco in Venice. These are crucial works in the history of Venetian Renaissance architecture. Andrea Palladio, in the Preface to his Quattro Libri was of the opinion that Sansovino's Biblioteca Marciana was the best building erected since Antiquity. Giorgio Vasari uniquely printed his Vita of Sansovino separately.
Orio Mastropiero, forename sometimes rendered as Aurio and surname as Malipiero, was a Venetian statesman who served as the Doge of Venice from 1178 to 1192. He was elected by the Council of Forty in 1178 following the retirement of Sebastiano Ziani. Prior to this he had been an ambassador to Sicily in 1175, tasked with drawing up a treaty with King William II. He had also been the electors' first choice for doge following the death of Vitale II Michiel in 1172, but stepped aside in favour of Ziani, an older and wealthier man.
The Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo, known in Venetian as San Zanipolo, is a Catholic minor basilica and Dominican conventual church in the Castello sestiere of Venice, Italy.
The Procuratie are three connected buildings along the perimeter of Saint Mark's Square in Venice, Italy. Two of the buildings, the Procuratie Vecchie and the Procuratie Nuove, were constructed by the procurators of Saint Mark, the second-highest dignitaries in the government of the Republic of Venice, who were charged with administering the treasury of the Church of Saint Mark as well as the financial affairs of state wards and trust funds established on behalf of religious and charitable institutions.
The Museo Correr is a museum in Venice, northern Italy. Located in St. Mark's Square, Venice, it is one of the 11 civic museums run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. The museum extends along the southside of the square on the upper floors of the Procuratorie Nuove. With its rich and varied collections, the Museo Correr covers both the art and history of Venice.
San Giorgio Maggiore is a 16th-century Benedictine church on the island of the same name in Venice, northern Italy, designed by Andrea Palladio, and built between 1566 and 1610. The church is a basilica in the classical Renaissance style and its brilliant white marble gleams above the blue water of the lagoon opposite the Piazzetta di San Marco and forms the focal point of the view from every part of the Riva degli Schiavoni.
Jacopo Tiepolo, also known as Giacomo Tiepolo, was Doge of Venice from 1229 to 1249. He had previously served as the first Venetian Duke of Crete, and two terms as Podestà of Constantinople, twice as governor of Treviso, and three times as ambassador to the Holy See. His dogate was marked by major domestic reforms, including the codification of civil law and the establishment of the Venetian Senate, but also against a mounting conflict with Emperor Frederick II, which broke into open war from 1237 to 1245.
This article presents a detailed timeline of the history of the Republic of Venice from its legendary foundation to its collapse under the efforts of Napoleon.
The Doge on the Bucintoro near the Riva di Sant'Elena is an oil painting on canvas by the Venetian painter Francesco Guardi. It was painted between 1775 and 1780, and is now in the Louvre in Paris.
San Vidal is a former church, and now an event and concert hall located at one end of the Campo Santo Stefano in the Sestiere of San Marco, where it leads into the campiello San Vidal, and from there to the Ponte dell'Accademia that spans the Grand Canal and connects to the Sestiere of Dorsoduro, Venice, Italy.
Venetian Renaissance architecture began rather later than in Florence, not really before the 1480s, and throughout the period mostly relied on architects imported from elsewhere in Italy. The city was very rich during the period, and prone to fires, so there was a large amount of building going on most of the time, and at least the facades of Venetian buildings were often particularly luxuriantly ornamented.
The Lion of Venice is an ancient bronze sculpture of a winged lion in the Piazza San Marco of Venice, Italy, which came to symbolize the city—as well as one of its patron saints, St Mark—after its arrival there in the 12th century. The sculpture surmounts one of two large granite columns in the Square, thought to have been erected between 1172 and 1177 during the reign of Doge Sebastiano Ziani or about 1268, bearing ancient symbols of the two patron saints of Venice.
Constance of Sicily was a Sicilian Princess and the Dogaressa of Venice by marriage to the Doge Pietro Ziani.
The Columns of San Marco and San Teodoro are two columns in Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy. They comprise the Column of San Marco, also known as the Column of the Lion, as well as the Column of San Teodoro. The statue of the Lion of Venice, which symbolises Mark the Evangelist, surmounts the Column of the Lion. The Column of San Teodoro is topped by a statue of Theodore Tiron, who was the patron saint of Venice before he was succeeded by Saint Mark. Both columns were likely erected either between 1172 and 1177 by Nicolò Barattieri, or sometime around 1268.
The Venetian Renaissance had a distinct character compared to the general Italian Renaissance elsewhere. The Republic of Venice was topographically distinct from the rest of the city-states of Renaissance Italy as a result of their geographic location, which isolated the city politically, economically and culturally, allowing the city the leisure to pursue the pleasures of art. The influence of Venetian art did not cease at the end of the Renaissance period. Its practices persisted through the works of art critics and artists proliferating its prominence around Europe to the 19th century.
Le Palais Ducal or The Doge's Palace is the name given to various oil paintings which depict the Doge's Palace made by Claude Monet during a visit to Venice in 1908.
San Geminiano was a Roman Catholic church located in Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy, dedicated to Saint Geminianus. It is believed to have been founded by the Byzantines in the 6th century AD and it was destroyed and rebuilt several times over subsequent centuries. The last reconstruction began in 1505 to designs of the architect Cristoforo da Legname, and it was completed by Jacopo Sansovino in 1557. This church was a significant example of Venetian Renaissance architecture, and it was well-known for being ornate and richly decorated. The building was demolished in 1807 in order to make way for the Napoleonic wing of the Procuratie, and many of the artworks it contained were distributed among other churches and museums.
