Here is a view of the entire portico that was designed to bring us inside the walls of the Ducal Palace, to its courtyard. The courtyard walls of the Palace are on the far left To the right the two domes of San Marco loom up behind the beautiful portico. Bartolomeo Monopola's Baroque courtyard façade is the section with the clock and the four antique statues. Attached to it on the right is the Foscari Arch, with long spires and tighter Renaissance design. It is interesting to see these two façades side by side. Students of architecture can compare the differences in form between the Renaissance and Baroque, keeping in mind that Monopola had to design his façade to fit in between the Gothic Ducal Palace on the left and the Renaissance Foscari Arch to the right. It was a difficult feat, and it works rather well.
Bartolomeo Monopola flourished 1580 - 1623 Monopola an archiitect designed Palazzo Priuli in Campo Santa Maria Formosa about 1580. He updated the two old courtyard façades of the Ducal Palace, and designed the courtyard exterior of the Foscari Arch. He is credited with the design of Palazzo Treves de'Bonfili. In 1614, he began the building of the Palazzo Pisani, one of the largest private palaces in Venice. It was finished after his death by Girolamo Frigimelica, more than a century later.
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