Venice: Doge's Palace - Golden Staircase - Statue of Atlas

For our day out in Venice, Mike and I made our way from the bus stop at Piazzale Roma to Piazza San Marco. After taking in the views from the piazza, we visited the Doge's Palace (Palazzo Ducale).

We entered through the Porta del Frumento on the south side of the palace and proceeded through the central courtyard, then climbed La Scala d'Oro -- the Golden Staircase -- to the upper level. The staircase's entryway is flanked by sculptures of Atlas holding up the heavens (shown here) and Hercules slaying the hydra.

An informational placard provided more details on the staircase and sculptures; I've transcribed the description below:

La Scala d'Oro (The Golden Staircase)
The name of the Golden Staircase is due to the rich decoration of the vault in white stucco and 24-carat gold, upon which Alessandro Vittoria began work in 1557; the frescoed compartments in the decoration are by Giambattista Franco. Commissioned from the architect Jacopo Sansovino in 1555 by the Doge Andrea Gritti, whose armorial bearings can be seen on the large archway, the staircase was finally completed by Scarpignano in 1559.

This was the ceremonial staircase that led up to the Doge's apartments and to the chambers in which the main bodies of state government met. Its sumptuous entranceway is surmounted by two marble sculptures: on the right, Atlas Bearing Up the Vault of the Heavens; on the left, Hercules Slaying the Hydra. Both are the works of Tiziano Aspetti (16th century).

The first ramp of the staircase is dedicated to Venus -- an allusion to Venice's conquest of the island of Cyprus, birthplace of the goddess. The stairs then fork into two ramps. The one on the right leads to the Doge's apartments and is decorated with motifs referring to Neptune, and thus to Venice's mastery over the seas. In both cases, mythology is put to the service of the Republic and its celebration of itself.

Taken on: August 27, 2016

Tags:

IMG_7065

Italy

Venezia

Venice

San Marco

palazzo

palace

Palazzo Ducale

Doge's Palace

Scala d'Oro

Golden Staircase

art

statue

sculpture

Tiziano Aspetti

Atlas

world

heavens

globe

Atlante

mondo « less

Sets appears in: • Italy + Riviera/Adriatic Cruise on Celebrity Constellation - August 2016 • Venice - August 2016

Camera: Canon PowerShot A3300 IS, f/5.0, 1/80 sec, 12.3mm, ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon PowerShot A3300 IS
Aperture:	f/5.0
Exposure Time:	0.013 sec (1/80)
Focal Length:	12.3mm
ISO:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Show full info

Stats: 2,410 views

go back

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder