FONDACO II

1505 – 1797

#FondacoHeritage

On 28 January 1505 the Fondaco burned down completely. The Council of Ten, the powerful governing body of Venice, decided that all the building materials present in the city – such as iron, stones and wood – should be employed for swift reconstruction of the original building and for a further extension, thanks to agreements stipulated with the owners of neighbouring properties. At the behest of Doge Loredan, huge sums were invested to give life to the new headquarters in 1508 and to strengthen the historic alliance with the economic capitals of Northern Europe. As a result, a large building with a single internal courtyard and three floors of galleries with one hundred and forty arches was designed perhaps by Girolamo Tedesco, under the direction of Giorgio Spavento and Scarpagnino. On the façade there is still today a plaque with two cherubs and an eagle with the inscription GERMANICIS D[icatum], dedicated to the German nation and inside, in the courtyard, a marble slab dedicated to the Doge himself. Following rebuilding, the walls of the Fondaco were completely decorated, both internally and externally, by Giorgione and Titian, who were commissioned by the Serenissima. The former painted the inner court and the external sides overlooking the Grand Canal and the Rio del Fondaco, while the latter the two sides facing the street. Very few fragments of these frescoes remain, including La Giuditta by Titian, now kept at the Galleria Franchetti in Ca’ d’Oro, and La Nuda by Giorgione, on display at Palazzo Grimani. Also by Giorgione, a fragment of Winged putto, which was bought by John Ruskin in the second half of the nineteenth century, has recently reappeared in a private collection. The Fondaco was directly administered by the Serenissima through the Visdomini, three patricians assisted by three clerks, whose office was to the left of the water door. Above the door you can still see a tiny medallion with the words Respice finem (the final part of the Latin proverb Quidquid agis prudenter agas et respice finem: whatever you do, do it wisely and consider the end), a reminder that they should act responsibly and exercise caution. The structure permanently housed about 120 merchants, in addition to a considerable number of packers, cooks, haulers, pesadori, ligadori, a masser o fontegher whose duties included collecting the weapons, assigning rooms and keeping the keys. In 1576 there were 72 rooms, in 1646 80 ½; the ground floor consisted of 25 large vaults used as warehouses and premises for workers. On the first floor, on the Canal Grande side, there were the Sala d’Estate (summer room) and Sala d’Inverno (winter room), the two dining halls where the merchants gathered and drank their meals, as well as the rooms for the Fugger and the Kolb, two prestigious and wealthy families of bankers and traders in sixteenth century Europe. The top floor housed an archive, a space used for religious services, the pastor’s apartment, and a kitchen. Outside, separated from the Fondaco, there were 22 shops rented to Venetians.