Two views of the building’s façade, as seen moving toward the Piazza San Marco and moving towards the train station. Click on images to enlarge them.
In the Venetian Index, which appears in the third and last volume of The Stones of Venice, Ruskin’s entry for the Palazzo Barbaro “on the Grand Canal, next the Palazzo Cavalli,” points out that “these two buildings form the principal objects in the foreground of the view which almost every artist seizes on his first traverse of the Grand Canal, the Church of the Salute forming a most graceful distance. Neither is, however, of much value, except in general effect; but the Barbaro is the best, and the pointed arcade in its side wall, seen from the narrow canal between it and the Cavalli, is good Gothic, of the earliest fourteenth century type” (11.291).
The Palazzo Cavalli is at the viewer’s left. The Curtis family from Boston, Massachusetts, brought the palazzo in 1885. Henry James wrote the Aspern Papers here, and Robert Browning wrote some of his poems here as well.
More of Ruskin's Venice
- The Palazzo Ducale, Venice
- The Scuola de San Rocco
- On the Grand Canal
- Leaving the Grand Canal
- On the way to Venice from the mainland
- Venice: Details and Corners
Photographs 2020. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Ruskin, John. The Works. Ed. E. T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn. “The Library Edition.” 39 vols. London: George Allen,1903-1912.
Last Modified 19 March 2020