Antonio da Ponte – architect

Builder who designed the most enduring image of Venice

Da Ponte's Rialto Bridge, completed in 1591, is
one of the best known images of Venice

The designer Antonio da Ponte, sometimes called dal Ponte, who is remembered for creating one of Venice’s most celebrated landmarks, the Rialto Bridge, died on this day in 1597 in his home city.

The Rialto Bridge over the Canal Grande (Grand Canal) has appeared in countless paintings and photographs of the city over the centuries since it was completed in 1591 and it is now a popular spot from which to take photographs when visiting the city.

Ponte’s design for the stone bridge, a broad single arch span covered with arcaded shops, won him a competition held in Venice in 1587 and it also ensured him a place in the history books.

Previously, a wooden bridge, Ponte da Moneta, built in 1178, was used as the way of crossing the Grand Canal at its narrowest point, but this bridge collapsed and had to be rebuilt several times over the centuries.

The Venetian authorities decided to replace the wooden bridge with a more permanent structure and held a competition for the design for the new bridge in 1587. 

Da Ponte’s idea for a bridge made out of stone was eventually picked as the winner by the judges acting on behalf of the Venetian authorities, who were led by the Doge at the time, Pasquale Cicogna.

When it came to constructing his design, Da Ponte was helped by one of his relatives, Antonio Contin, sometimes referred to as Conte, who went on later to design the famous Bridge of Sighs - il Ponte dei Sospiri - in Venice.  

Da Ponte had previously worked on other building projects in Venice, including warehouses, a hospital, the Doge’s Palace, and the Arsenal. 

Da Ponte, a respected designer, built
the bridge after winning a competition 

Documents from the time show that his opinions as a builder and designer were respected by the Venetian authorities.

Between 1577 and 1592, Da Ponte collaborated with Andrea Palladio on the construction of the Church of the Redeemer on the Giudecca, which was built by Venice to honour a pledge made after the plague of 1576 in the city came to an end.

Even though many other proposals for rebuilding the Rialto had been made by famous architects at the time, Pasquale Cicogna still chose to announce a competition, which he then decided to repeat after all the designers who entered suggested a classical design with many arches.

After the second competition, it is believed Da Ponte’s design was chosen by the Doge over the one submitted by the architect Vincenzo Scamozzi because Da Ponte had proposed building a bridge with a single arch.

The new Rialto Bridge, built of stone and looking exactly as it does now, was completed by 1591. Da Ponte was in his seventies by then but was able to look proudly on his work for a few more years. 

Da Ponte was in his early eighties when he died. He is buried in the Church of San Maurizio, which is in the San Marco sestiere of Venice.

The English playwright William Shakespeare, who is known to have been fascinated by Italy, may have read about the newly-built Rialto Bridge. In his play, The Merchant of Venice, there are several mentions of the Rialto district in Venice, notably the famous line: ‘What news on the Rialto?’, a question that is asked by a character called Solanio near the beginning of the play.

There is no evidence that Shakespeare ever visited Italy himself, but he may have mixed with Italians living in London and it is known that he read books in Italian so he must have had some understanding of the language. 

The play is believed to have been written by him at some time between 1596 and 1598 and the merchant referred to in the title just happened to be called Antonio.

The Ca' Rezzonico, built in Baroque style,
is a notable palace on the Grand Canal

Travel tip:

The Canal Grande (Grand Canal) sweeps through the heart of Venice, following the course of an ancient river bed. Since the founding days of the Venetian empire, it has served as the city’s main thoroughfare. It was once used by great galleys and trading vessels, but nowadays is teeming with vaporetti - the city’s water buses - as well as water taxis, private boats, and gondolas. The palaces bordering the winding waterway bear the names of the old Venetian aristocratic families and represent the finest architecture designed for the republic over its many centuries of history. When the ambassador to Charles VIII of France visited Venice in 1495, he afterwards referred to the Grand Canal as ‘the most beautiful street in the world.’ Its most notable palaces include the gilded Ca' d'Oro, the Baroque Ca' Rezzonico, the Renaissance-style Ca' Vendramin Calergi, the iconic Ca' Foscari University, and the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, which houses the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

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The former Church of San
Maurizio is now a museum 

Travel tip:

The Church of San Maurizio in Venice, where Antonio da Ponte was buried, was rebuilt in the sixteenth century on the site of a previous church in the Campo di San Maurizio in the sestiere of San Marco. The church was modified again in 1806 by the architect of Teatro La Fenice, Gianantonio Selva. It has now been deconsecrated and is home to the Museo della Musica, a museum dedicated to the Baroque music of Venice, which displays examples of period instruments and documents relating to Vivaldi and other Venetian composers of the same period.  The Artemio Versari collection of instruments recounts the golden epoch of stringed instrument making in 18th century Venice. Visitors can experience the sound as well as the sight of these instruments. As well as Venetian instruments, there are examples by such makers as Amati, Guadagnini and Goffriller, among the greats in Italy’s proud tradition of luthiers. 

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More reading:

Vincenzo Scamozzi, an architect whose legacy can be seen in Venice and Vicenza

Andrea Palladio, the humble stonecutter who became architecture’s biggest name

Jacopo Sansovino, the Florence-born designer whose masterpiece competes for attention with the Doge’s Palace

Also on this day: 

43BC: The birth of Roman poet Ovid

1898: The birth of society jeweller Fulco di Verdura

1934: The birth of football coach Azeglio Vicini

1940: The birth of racing driver and entrepreneur Giampiero Moretti

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John Singer Sargent - painter

Celebrated portraitist had lifelong love for Italy

John Singer Sargent, photographed in
1903 by James E Purdy

The painter John Singer Sargent, who was hailed as the leading portraitist of his era but was also a brilliant painter of landscapes, was born on this day in 1856 in Florence.

Although he became an American citizen at the first opportunity, both his parents being American, he spent his early years in Italy and would regularly return to the country throughout his life.

At his commercial peak during the Edwardian age, his studio in London attracted wealthy clients not only from England but from the rest of Europe and even from the other side of the Atlantic, asking him to grant them immortality on canvas.

His full length portraits, which epitomised the elegance and opulence of high society at the end of the 19th century, would cost the subject up to $5,000 - the equivalent of around $140,000 (€122,000; £109,000) today.

Sargent was born in Italy on account of a cholera pandemic, the second to hit Europe that century, which caused a high number of fatalities in London in particular. His parents, who were regular visitors to Italy, were in Florence and decided it would be prudent to stay.

A Sargent portrait of a celebrated
American actress and her daughter

There was always a strong chance that he would be born in Italy. Although his parents had a home in Paris, they were almost constantly travelling to one part of Europe or another in search of culture, and Italy, with its wealth of classical attractions, was a favourite destination.

Sargent’s sister, Mary, was also born in Florence and in time the family decided to stay there, his father relinquishing his position as an eye surgeon in Philadelphia.

The young Sargent did not have a formal education but learned much from his parents, quickly developing an appreciation of art, particularly in Venice, where he studied at first hand the works of Tintoretto, whom he rated an inferior only to Titian and Michelangelo.

By the age of 12, Sargent was already making his own sketches of the scenic wonders of Italy. He received his first organised art instruction from the German landscape painter, Carl Welsch, in Florence but left in 1874 to study in Paris. He was 22 before he made his first visit to the United States, and although he took the opportunity to claim his American citizenship, he immediately returned to Italy.

He spent time in Naples and Capri in 1878 before taking a studio in Venice, from which he painted many views, often of the lesser-known parts of the city and of Venetian people going about their normal daily lives. Where many painters focused on the places that attracted tourists, and did very well as a result, Sargent was more interested in the real Venice.

Sargent's impressionist-style watercolour of the Scuola di San
Rocco in Venice, noted for its collection of Tintoretto paintings

Among his Venetian scenes, his Scuola di San Rocco (c. 1903) marks Sargent as one of the finest watercolour painters of all time.

He found his own best commercial opportunities lay in Paris, and subsequently London, however, and portrait-painting became the driving force of his career.

His gift was in his ability to make each portrait somehow unique, despite the repetitive nature of the work. He managed to find something different about every sitter, could use props and background to suggest their class or occupation, and specialised in capturing his subjects in off-guard moments, rather than formal poses, to evoke a sense of their nature.

But portraits were not really what he wanted to do and, in 1910, having grown wealthy, Sargent gave up portraiture and devoted the rest of his life to painting murals and Alpine and Italian landscapes in watercolour.

Sargent's watercolour of the church of Santa Maria della Salute

Travel tip:

The great Baroque church of Santa Maria della Salute was one of Sargent’s favourite churches in Venice. Standing at the entrance to the Grand Canal and supported by more than a million timber piles, it was built to celebrate the city’s deliverance from the plague that claimed the lives of 46,000 Venetians in 1630. It is one of the most imposing architectural landmarks in Venice and has inspired painters such as Canaletto, Turner and Guardi. The interior consists of a large octagonal space below a cupola with eight side chapels. There are paintings by Titian and Tintoretto and a group of statues depicting the Virgin and Child expelling the plague by the Flemish sculptor, Josse de Corte.

Sargent's impression of a gondola passing beneath the Rialto

Travel tip:

The Rialto Bridge, of which Sargent sought different aspects, is the oldest of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal in Venice, connecting the sestieri of San Marco and San Polo. Originally built as a pontoon bridge in 1181, and called Ponte della Moneta after the city’s mint, which stood near its eastern entrance, it was rebuilt several times, first in 1255, when it was replaced with a wooden bridge to cope with extra traffic generated by the development of the Rialto market. It had two inclined ramps meeting at a movable central section, that could be raised to allow the passage of tall ships. The rows of shops along the sides of the bridge were added in the first half of the 15th century. It was replaced by a stone bridge after once burning down and twice collapsing under the weight of people.

More reading:

Tintoretto, the dyer's son whose work adorns Venice

Titian, the giant of Renaissance art

The Festival of Madonna della Salute, when Venetians celebrate their deliverance from the plague

Also on this day:

1562: The birth of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy

1751: The birth of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies

1848: Sicily rebels against the Bourbons


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