The most important and interesting building in the town is undoubtedly the Rector’s Palace, which is to Ragusa what the Ducal Palace is to Venice. It was commenced by architects inspired by Venetian ideas, and completed by others devoted to Renaissance art. The site of the existing edifice was originally occupied—in the days when the whole town was confined to the seaward ridge, and separated from the mainland by a marshy
ÆSCULAPIUS” CAPITAL, RECTOR’S PALACE channel where the Stradone now runs—by a castle as a defence against the Vlach settlement on the opposite side. When this was absorbed, and the marshy channel filled in, the castle was enlarged and strengthened, and later became the seat of the Government and the residence of the Count. Beyond the fact that it was protected by four towers,[504] we know nothing about this early building. Already, in 1272, it was spoken of as a very ancient edifice,[505] and in 1349 the Council decided “quod sala veteris palatii ubi dominus Comes habitat reaptetur et altius elevetur,”[506] which seems to show that it had been allowed to fall into disrepair. In 1388 it was demolished, and on its site the foundations of a larger and more commodious building were laid. The new palace was not completed until 1420, and of this also little is known, as fifteen years later a fire destroyed “the spacious palace of Ragusa, which was in ancient times the castle, together with certain towers, and nearly all the ammunition and arms which were kept for the defence of the city and the armament of the galleys.”[507] “Then the Ragusan Government decided that the Palace should be rebuilt with more magnificent construction, sparing no expense, and that the greater part of the former castle which the fiery flame had not consumed should be levelled with the ground, the architect being a certain Mastro Onofrio Giordani of La Cava, in the kingdom of Naples. The walls are made of ashlar stone (De Diversis was a witness both of the fire and of the reconstruction), finely wrought and very ornamentally carved, with great vaults resting on tall and stout columns, which were brought from Curzola.[508] The capitals, or upper parts of these columns, are carved with great pains. There are five large entire columns, but two other half-columns, one attached to one tower, the other to the other; on the first was carved Æsculapius, the restorer of medical art, at the instigation of that remarkable poet and most learned man of letters, Niccolò de Lazina (Larina or Laziri), a noble of Cremona.... For since he knew, and had learned in his literary studies, that Æsculapius had his origin at Epidaurus, which is now called Ragusa,[509] he took the greatest pains and trouble that his image should be carved on the building, and he composed a metrical epitaph to him, which was fixed in the wall. On a central column of the entrance to the Palace is seen sculptured the first righteous judgment of Solomon. In an angle of the principal door is the likeness of the Rector hearing offences. At the entrance of the Lesser Council, of which I shall have to speak by-and-by, is a certain sculpture of Justice holding a scroll, on which is read as follows: “Jussi summa mei sua vos cuicumque tueri’.”[510]
But even this second palace was destined to suffer a similar fate. On August 8, 1462, it was destroyed by fire and the explosion of the powder magazine. Other buildings were also consumed or greatly damaged, including the Palace of the Grand Council; of the Rector’s Palace the ground floor alone remained. Steps were at once taken to repair the damage, for which purpose the celebrated architects Michelozzo Michelozzi of Florence and Giorgio Orsini of Sebenico were commissioned. Of Michelozzo, who had been a sculptor and a pupil of Donatello, Vasari says: “In one thing he surpassed many, and himself also, namely, that, after Brunelleschi, he was acknowledged the most able architect of his time, the one who most conveniently ordered and disposed the accommodation of palaces, convents, and houses, and the one who showed most judgment in introducing improvements.” He was at Ragusa in 1463 engaged on the town walls, and in 1464 the Senate ordered the palace to be rebuilt according to his designs (11th February). He left Ragusa in June, and was succeeded by Giorgio Orsini of Sebenico. The latter, a scion of a branch of the great Roman family of that name, which had settled in Dalmatia before coming to Ragusa, had helped to rebuild the cathedral of Sebenico. The style of his early work had been Gothic, but even while at Sebenico he was half converted to Renaissance ideas.[511] When he came to Ragusa he had adopted them completely, and his work on the Palace shows no traces of Gothic. Thus we have parts of the building in the Gothic style by Onofrio, and parts in that of the Renaissance by Orsini and Michelozzo. The earthquake of 1667 did some damage to the upper story, but it was soon repaired, and the general character of the structure remains practically unaltered.
The façade consists of two stories, the lower consisting of a loggia of six round arches between two solid structures, while the upper is pierced by eight two-light Venetian Gothic windows. The two solid structures contain windows, and originally supported square towers, of which only the lower parts remain. The capitals of the columns in the loggia are partly Gothic and partly Renaissance work, while the arches which they support are all in the latter style. Examining the capitals in detail, we find that the elaborate half column adorned with the figure of Æsculapius is obviously the work of Onofrio, and so are the other three outer capitals. They are far bolder in design and more perfect in execution than the three classical ones in the centre. The Æsculapius is a very interesting piece of work. It represents an old man seated with an open book in his hand, a number of alembics, retorts, and other scientific instruments by his side, and two men standing beyond, one with a fowl in his hand. It is evidently intended to represent an alchemist or physician giving advice. The capital next to this one is considered by Jackson to be the finest of all: “The tender rigidity of the foliage, the delicate pencilling of the fibres, and the just proportioning of light and shade in this lovely piece of sculpture can hardly be surpassed.”[512] The columns themselves are all by Onofrio, and the wall belongs to the same period, as is proved by an inscription recording the erection of the Palace in 1435.
The three middle capitals, all the heavy abaci, and the round arches which they support are the work of Orsini. It is extremely probable that the original arches of Onofrio were pointed, but that they and the middle capitals were so injured by fire that new ones had to be provided, and Orsini, wishing to give the building as much of a Renaissance character as possible, built round arches in the place of pointed ones. But to do this he had to supply the heavy abaci which we now see in the place of Onofrio’s shallow ones, so as to make the arches high enough to support the vaultings. It is curious that the upper story, above the restored Renaissance arches of the loggia, should belong to the earlier period. According to Mr. Graham Jackson, the explanation lies in the fact that in the restoration the old materials—columns and other adornments—which had fallen without being hopelessly damaged were used. The capitals of the upper windows are small, but excellent in design. Their chief motif is foliage intertwined with faces of human beings and lions. Some of them remind us distantly of the capitals in the Franciscan cloister, although the latter are of course of a much earlier date.
SCULPTURED IMPOST, RECTOR’S PALACE
Within the loggia are various sculptured ornaments. The doorway leading into the courtyard is decorated with a little scroll of foliage round the arch, and small half-length human figures. The capitals and imposts are admirably carved with groups of figures full of movement. The impost to the right bears on the front face a group of putti or angels playing various musical instruments, quite in the style of Michelozzo, while on the return face is a group of armed men. Of the left-hand impost the front face is adorned with the figures of a man and woman embracing each other, a boy standing at their side; and the return face, with a group of dancing figures, one of whom is blowing a horn—a curious specimen of perspective. The small brackets whence the vaulting springs are also beautifully carved with groups of men and animals. The best of these is the one with a shepherd boy and a dragon, both full of movement and grace, and likewise interesting in perspective.
All this sculpture is Onofrio’s work, and so is the Porta della Carità to the right, otherwise called the “Porta è l’Officio del Fondico.” Here in times of famine the poor received their doles of bread, sold below cost price or on easy credit. Adjoining is the small door leading to the hall of the Minor Council on the mezzanine floor. To the right and left of the main entrance are rows of carved marble benches. The ones to the right are in double tiers, and here on grand occasions the Rector would sit with the Minor Council, the Archbishop, and, in later times, the Imperial Resident. The lower single-tier seats were for the Grand Council. The whole loggia was known as “sotto i volti.”