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At Works, 11.44 Ruskin calls the Palazzo Grimani on the Grand Canal ‘the principal type at Venice, and one of the best in Europe, of the central architecture of the Renaissance schools’. It is at San Marco 4041, Nadali & Vianello (1999) Tav. 29.
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Works, 9.43 and following set out Ruskin’s reasons for asserting the importance of the Palazzo Grimani of 1556 as one of the best of its kind in Europe, for its ‘majesty’, and its façade which is ‘simple, delicate, and sublime’. It is the true antagonist of Gothic architecture.
It was the work of Michele Sanmicheli, from Verona, died 1559, and is reminiscent in style of the earlier Palazzo Loredan (later Palazzo Vendramin Calergi) of 1502, attributed to Codussi.
At Notebook M2 p.34 Ruskin refers to Sansovino (1663) p.387, where Sansovino explains the greatness of what he saw as the four outstanding buildings of Venice in terms of a combination of ‘artificio di pietre vive’, of the ‘magistero’ derived from Vitruvius, and of the expenditure by their patrons of ‘oltre a 200 mila ducati’ - ‘cioè il Loredano a San Marcuola [i.e. Vendramin Calergi], il Grimani a San Luca, il Delfino a San Salvadore, & il Cornaro a San Mauritio’.
Compare Sansovino’s comment on the principle of equality enshrined in the Lege Daula, cited by Ruskin at Notebook M p.110.
See Howard (2002) p.183 and following. There is a photograph in Quill (2000) p.168.
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