The history of the construction of the Palace is obscure and confusing,—a bald array of senatorial decrees and dates. The original Doges' Palace, probably a small fortified castle, was built early in the ninth century, and in the troublous period of early Venetian history was frequently burned and rebuilt. At the end of the twelfth century Sebastiano Ziani restored and enlarged it. The present palace was begun in 1300 by the building of the west façade, and was a slow growth extending over nearly three centuries, the older building of Ziani being gradually pulled down as room was required for the new work. About 1309 the arcaded sea-front was begun; and the design then adopted was accurately followed along the whole external façade. Towards the end of the fourteenth century the façade had been carried along the Piazzetta side as far as the tenth capital. At this point the work seems to have remained stationary for some years, and a considerable portion of Ziani's palace was still in existence. In 1422 a decree was passed that the new palace should be extended over the site of Ziani's building; and in a few years the remainder of the external façade was completed up to its juncture with the Church of St. Mark. The Porta della Carta, which unites the Palace with the Church, was added in 1439. The internal block in the great court, joining the Porta della Carta to the east façade was built about 1462. In 1479 a fire consumed part of the fourteenth century buildings along the east front, and this part was then rebuilt, mostly between 1480 and 1550. These, in brief, are the facts (for which we are indebted to the account of Prof. J. H. Middleton) upon which historians have in general come to agree, though there is still difference of opinion as to the exact portions of the structure to which the various decrees refer.
| PLATE LXIX | SCALA D'ORO: DUCAL PALACE |
An interesting theory concerning the design of the palace, and incidentally a critical estimate of its architecture, has been given us by Mr. George Edmund Street in his scholarly treatise upon "Brick and Marble in the Middle Ages." "The whole design" he writes, "is divided into three stages in height. The upper is nearly equal to the united height of the two lower stages, and is faced entirely with a delicate diaper of marble cut into small oblong pieces, which look save in their texture and color, only too much like bricks. In this marble-faced wall are pierced a number of windows with pointed arches—the tracery of which has been taken out—and in or near the centre of each façade is a much larger window and a balcony, which look as though they had been subsequently inserted. The lowest stage consists of a long and uniform arcade of very simple pointed arches resting upon circular columns with elaborately carved capitals; these columns have been shortened by some twenty inches of their old height by the rise of the water and the consequent elevation of the pavement, to the great damage of their effect. The intermediate stage is a magnificent arcade supporting very vigorous tracery and divided from the stages above and below it by large and pronounced lines of carved and moulded string-courses.
| DUCAL PALACE | DETAIL OF CEILING, ANTE CHAMBER OF THE CHAPEL |
"It is important to observe that up to the top of the second string-course the whole of the architecture is of the very best kind of Venetian pointed, and is, I believe, the very best and truest specimen of Gothic architecture south of the Alps.