00 Prelims 1630
02 Howard 1630 13/11/08 11:01 Page 29 ITALIAN LECTURE Architectural Politics in Renaissance Venice DEBORAH HOWARD St John’s College, Cambridge WHATISTHE ROLE OF ARCHITECTURE in the self-definition of a political regime? To what extent are the ideologies of state communicated in public space? Can public confidence be sustained by extravagant building initiatives—or be sapped by their failures? These issues are, of course,as relevant today as they were in the Renaissance.Venice,in particular,seems closer to our own times than most other Early Modern states because of its relatively ‘democratic’ constitution, at least within the ranks of the rul- ing oligarchy. It was a democracy only for noblemen, since voting rights and eligibility for important committees and councils were limited to members (men only, numbering about 2,000) of a closed, hereditary caste. Nevertheless,many of the problems over decision-making ring true to modern ears.Indeed, it could be argued that the continual revision of public building projects during their execution is an essential characteristic of the democratic process. It has been claimed by architectural historians over the past few decades that ambitious programmes of building patronage in Renaissance Venice helped to communicate political ideals to the public.1 Read at the Academy 10 May 2007. 1 See,for example,Manfredo Tafuri, Jacopo Sansovino (Padua, 1969; 2nd edn., 1972); Deborah Howard, Jacopo Sansovino: Architecture and Patronage in Renaissance Venice (New Haven & London, 1975; rev.edn., 1987); Manfredo Tafuri, ‘“Renovatio urbis Venetiarum”: il problema storiografico’, in M. Tafuri (ed.), ‘Renovatio urbis’: Venezia nell’età di Andrea Gritti (1523–1538) (Rome,1984), pp.9–55; Manfredo Tafuri, Venezia e il Rinascimento (Turin, 1985; English edn., trans.Jessica Levine,Cambridge,MA and London, 1989).
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