The Drunkenness of Noah
Unknown, Venetian workshop · Early fifteenth century
At the corner of the palace nearest the Bridge of Sighs, high on the angle of the building, an old man sways with a cup in his hand while his robe slips from his shoulders. He is Noah, drunk on the first wine after the Flood, and the vine that undid him climbs the corner beside him with grapes you could almost pick. His sons Shem and Japheth turn away and cover him with a cloak, while Ham, on the other face of the corner, stares at his father's shame. It is one of three great corner sculptures on the palace, with the Fall of Adam and Eve at the corner facing the Piazzetta and the Judgement of Solomon beside the Porta della Carta.
Stand on the Ponte della Paglia and look up. The figures are carved almost in the round from Istrian stone, and their weight and tenderness are remarkable for the early fifteenth century. Noah's aged body, with its sagging chest and loose skin, is observed with unusual honesty, and the folds of the cloak fall naturally. The sculptor is unknown; the group has been given to the Bon workshop, to Filippo Calendario, the architect executed with Doge Falier, and to Tuscan carvers passing through Venice, and it remains a puzzle. Above the group, on the loggia level, stands the Archangel Raphael with the young Tobias.
The three corners were planned as a sermon in stone. Adam and Eve show original sin, Noah shows human weakness, and Solomon shows wise justice, the quality the palace existed to deliver. Sailors landing at the quay saw Noah first, a warning against the wine of the taverns behind the palace. A memorable detail is the way the vine leaves are undercut so deeply that in strong sunlight the corner seems to be draped in real foliage.
Did You Know? The carved vine beside Noah is so deeply undercut that birds have been seen nesting behind the stone leaves.
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