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The Quadro da Portego in Sixteenth-Century Venetian Art*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Monika Schmitter
Monika Schmitter*
Affiliation:
University of Massaschusetts Amherst
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Abstract

During the sixteenth century a symbiotic relationship developed between the form, use, and symbolic associations of the Venetian portego, the central reception and entertainment hall of Venetian palaces, and the paintings that were increasingly commissioned to ornament these spaces. The intended placement of the paintings affected their size, format, composition, subject matter, and contemporary interpretation. At the same time, the works of art themselves reflected upon and helped to define the social meanings of the space and the activities taking place there. Analyzing documentary sources and surviving paintings reveals the degree to which we can speak of the quadro da portego as a distinctive type of Venetian painting.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 64 , Issue 3 , Fall 2011 , pp. 693 - 751
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 2011

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Footnotes

*

Please see the online version of this article for color illustrations.

This study began as a paper delivered at the public symposium held in conjunction with the exhibition Bellini, Giorgione, Titian and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting (18 June–17 September 2006) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. I would like to thank David Alan Brown for inviting me to participate in this stimulating event. I am grateful to Peter Berek, Blake de Maria, Ombretta Frau, Craig Harbison, Chriscinda Henry, Filippo Naitana, Brian Ogilvie, Jutta Sperling, and Adam Zucker for their help and contributions, and especially to Pat Simons, Paul Staiti, and Barbara Schmitter Heisler for their comments and suggestions concerning written versions of this article. Research for the project was funded by grants from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. All translations are mine except where otherwise noted.

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