The Porta della Carta
Giovanni Bon and Bartolomeo Bon (Bartolomeo Bon about 1400 to 1464) · 1438 to 1442
The ceremonial entrance to the palace is a tall Gothic doorway squeezed between the pink facade and the corner of Saint Mark's Basilica. Above the door, Doge Francesco Foscari kneels before the winged lion of Saint Mark, and above him rise pinnacles, tracery, a round window and, at the very top, the figure of Justice with her sword and scales. The name means the Gate of the Paper, probably because petitions were handed in here or because scribes sat nearby to draw up documents for citizens. Today the visitor exit passes through it, so look back at it as you leave.
The gate was carved between 1438 and 1442 by Giovanni Bon and his son Bartolomeo, the leading sculptors of late Gothic Venice, and it was once painted in blue and gold, which is hard to imagine now that the stone has weathered to cream. Look at the four virtues in the niches on either side, Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence and Charity, and at the delicate foliage that climbs the whole frame. The Doge and lion group above the door is a nineteenth century replacement: the original was destroyed in 1797 when the French, having ended the Republic, smashed lions and Doges all over the city. The bust of Foscari in the small niche at the top is original.
Through the gate you pass into the Foscari arch and then the courtyard, so the doorway was the first thing a visiting ambassador saw and the last thing a citizen saw on the way out. It is a summary of the Venetian idea of government: the Doge kneeling, not enthroned, before the symbol of the state, with Justice above them both. A memorable detail is the small pair of putti holding a shield high on the pinnacles, easy to miss unless you stand back on the Piazzetta.
Did You Know? The original Doge Foscari and lion above the door were smashed in 1797 by order of the French, and the present group was carved in 1885.
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