VIII. THE DUCAL PALACE 345

The room then begun is the one now in existence, and its building involved the building of all that is best and most beautiful in the present Ducal Palace, the rich arcades of the lower stories being all prepared for sustaining this Sala del Gran Consiglio.

§ 19. In saying that it is the same now in existence, I do not mean that it has undergone no alterations; as we shall see hereafter, it has been refitted again and again, and some portions of its walls rebuilt; but in the place and form in which it first stood, it still stands; and by a glance at the position which its windows occupy, as shown in Fig. 37 above, the reader will see at once that whatever can be known respecting the design of the Sea Façade, must be gleaned out of the entries which refer to the building of this Great Council Chamber.

Cadorin quotes two of great importance, to which we shall return in due time, made during the progress of the work in 1342 and 1344; then one of 1349, resolving that the works at the Ducal Palace, which had been discontinued during the plague, should be resumed; and finally one in 1362, which speaks of the Great Council Chamber as having been neglected and suffered to fall into “great desolation,” and resolves that it shall be forthwith completed.*

The interruption had not been caused by the plague only, but by the conspiracy of Faliero, and the violent death of the master builder.† The work was resumed in 1362, and completed within the next three years, at least so far as that Guariento¹ was enabled to paint his Paradise on the

capacious enough, the saloon on the Grand Canal was ordered.” “Per cio parendo che il luogo non fosse capace, fu ordinata la Sala sul Canal Grande.” -P. 324.

* Cadorin, 185, 2. The decree of 1342 is falsely given as of 1345 by the Sivos Chronicle, and by Magno; while Sanuto gives the decree to its right year 1342, but speaks of the Council Chamber as only begun in 1345.

† Calendario. See Appendix 1, Vol. III.

¹ [A painter of Padua, among the artists employed to decorate the Great Hall in 1365. Frescoes by him may still be seen in the Eremitani at Padua.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]