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Dogana da Mar: la punta dell'arte
Author Giandomenico Romanelli |
Dogana da Mar is an illustrated history of the Punta della Dogana, now one of Venice’s most important venues for contemporary art exhibitions. Giandomenico Romanelli reconstructs the distant and recent past of one of the most famous buildings in Venice. Looking both at the architectural and the political-administrative history of the structure over a total of seven centuries, his book charts the various changes in use which have led to substantial alterations in the fabric itself.
A key point in the economic life of the Venetian Republic, the medieval Customs House was completed only in the eighteenth century, around the same time as the building of the church of La Salute. Those final phases in building work were carried out under Baldassare Longhena and, subsequently, Giuseppe Benoni (who was responsible for the famous tip of the building, surmounted by a wind vane statue of Fortune atop a golden sphere). This whole complex has recently been restored in an exemplary manner by the architect Tadao Ando, becoming a key international venue for the exhibition of contemporary art and confirming Venice’s role in this field.
The building houses a selection of contemporary art works from the extraordinary François Pinault Collection, as well as providing facilities for conferences and student workshops. With essays by Jean-Claude Hocquet (The Commercial System of Venice) and Paola Rossi (Sculptural Decoration), the book also describes the events which, after years of neglect, would lead to the assignment of this prestigious structure to Francois Pinault for the exhibition of his collection, thus providing Venice with what has become one of its most highly-prized artistic venues.
The rich illustrations in the book include famous and less famous paintings, as well as numerous views in which artists through the ages have depicted this part of the Venetian urban panorama.
