Palazzo Malipiero - Architecture

Architecture

As with most Venetian palaces, the Cà Grande (Great House) of Saint Samuel is built as two main superposed floors, but unlike other palaces, each floor is accessed by its own independent entrance hall, stairway and porta d'acqua (water door).

Through an ancient Byzantine door one accesses the "secondo piano nobile" (second main floor). The main door opens onto a large 17th-century entrance hall leading to the magnificent "primo piano nobile" (first main floor) and to the ancient medieval courtyard, the 19th-century garden and the door on the Grand Canal.

The architectural development of the "Cà Grande di San Samuele" is similar to the traditional evolution of many Venetian palaces, the freedom and the harmony of structures underpinning the vivid rhythms and original fascination of the city. In fact the structure of the building is made of three parts, each closely merged to the others, representing three eras: the Byzantine style, the International Gothic style and the seventeenth century one.

The original part of the building was probably built between the 10th and 11th centuries by Soranzo family in Venetian-Byzantine style, as evidenced by the large door (number 3201) and the quadruple windows with round arches (later amalgamated into the gothic structure) visible on the San Samuele side. In the middle of the 14th century, the Soranzo added the third floor (the second main floor) to the Cà Grande, as evidenced by the pointed arch windows.

This Gothic design was perfectly amalgamated with the floor below, respecting and incorporating elements of the older construction. By the mid-15th century the Cappello decided to expand the narrow palace. Building on an unused area on the garden's side, the facade on the Grand Canal was widened to the dimensions we see today.

Restoring and enlarging the building was also the main concern of Caterino Malipiero, as testified by the date 1622 engraved with the initials K.M. on the main door accessing the large Palace entrance. The family's coat-of-arms with cock's claws is also proudly sculpted there. In the second half of the seventeenth century, Palazzo Malipiero, its architecture ignoring Baroque, was one of the richest and most meaningful buildings in Venice.

The etching of the palace in 1718 by Luca Carlevarijs shows the palace ended after the two main entrances and a Calle borders its back end and separates it from the other houses that now are part of the building. The drawing clearly depicts further back the then-called Calle della Commedia. In the first half of 18th century the Malipiero family, according to a now lost architectural plan, decided to connect the palace with some houses abutting it on its rear, eliminating the Calle Malipiero that separated them. The facade on Campo San Samuele was extended backwards by 30 meters; the garden was widened to include part of a pre-existing Ramo Malipiero which bordered the Palace on the garden side, and a new perspective was created from the Palace's main entrance to the garden.

St. Samuel parish cultural life was revived after 1950 with the restoration and establishment of the Palazzo Grassi as a Cultural Center was established. Palazzo Malipiero now hosts the exhibition spaces of Studio d'Arte Barnabò Gallery and Il Tridente multimedia publishing house. In the early 1950s the renovation project of the palace, its interior and to the garden was directed by Nino Barbantini. For the 2011 Biennale, the Palazzo Malipiero served as the official Montenegro pavilion, which featured artist Marina Abramović.