370 VENETIAN INDEX

D

DANDOLO, PALAZZO, on the Grand Canal. Between the Casa Loredan and Casa Bembo is a range of modern buildings, some of which occupy, I believe, the site of the palace once inhabited by the Doge Henry Dandolo. Fragments of early architecture of the Byzantine school may still be traced in many places among their foundations, and two doors in the foundation of the Casa Bembo itself belong to the same group. There is only one existing palace, however, of any value, on this spot, a very small but rich Gothic one of about 1300, with two groups of fourth-order windows in its second and third stories, and some Byzantine circular mouldings built into it above. This is still reported to have belonged to the family of Dandolo, and ought to be carefully preserved, as it is one of the most interesting and ancient Gothic palaces which yet remain.

DANIELI, ALBERGO. See NANI.

DA PONTE, PALAZZO. Of no interest.

DARIO, PALAZZO, IX. 33 (Plate 1), 425, XI. 21, 255.

DOGANA DI MARE, at the separation of the Grand Canal from the Giudecca. A barbarous building of the time of the Grotesque Renaissance (1676), rendered interesting only by its position. The statue of Fortune forming the weathercock, standing on the world, is alike characteristic of the conceits of the time, and of the hopes and principles of the last days at Venice.

DONATO, CHURCH OF ST., at Murano, X. 41.

DONÀ, PALAZZO, on the Grand Canal. I believe the palace described under this name as of the twelfth century, by M. Lazari, is that which I have called the Braided House, X. 453.

D’ORO, CASA [X. 284, XI. 11 n.]. A noble pile of very quaint Gothic, once superb in general effect, but now destroyed by restorations. I saw the beautiful slabs of red marble, which formed the bases of its balconies, and were carved into noble spiral mouldings of strange sections, half a foot deep, dashed to pieces when I was last in Venice;¹ its glorious interior staircase,

¹ [i.e. in 1851-1852. Previously, in 1845, he had also seen the “restorers” at work there; see the letters quoted in notes to Vol. III. p. 214, and Vol. VIII. p. 243. This famous house was built (1424-1430) for Marino Contarini (Procurator of St. Mark’s) by John Bon, the architect of the Porta della Carta, and other of the early Renaissance work on the Ducal Palace. The contract, with minute specifications, has been unearthed from the State Archives, since Ruskin wrote (see a paper by Signor Boni, communicated to the Royal Institute of British Architects, and summarised in the Times of December 7, 1886). Being richly gilded, it was known as the Golden House (Ca’ d’Oro). The painter employed was Maestro Zuan di Franza, and the contract stipulated that some of the stonework was to be painted with white lead, and then veined, in imitation of marble. A speaker in the discussion which followed the reading of Signor Boni’s paper said that “Mr. Ruskin, had he been present, would probably have been aghast” at this documentary evidence. More probably he would have seen in it, with some satisfaction, a sign of the incipient decadence of Venetian architecture, and a confirmation of conclusions arrived at by him on other evidence-the date of the contract being precisely that which he had fixed as the beginning of “The Fall” (see Vol. X. p. 352). Signor Boni’s paper in other respects illustrates Ruskin’s conclusions. “The battlements (referred

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