venetian architecture 763
text to the stato da mar.74 Post-colonial theories of center and periphery,
hybridity and local identity, now frame investigations into Venetian build-
ing in the oltremare, but it must be stressed that the Venetian “colonies”
in the Islamic world were in reality concessionary trading posts where the
rhetoric of colonial discourse has no place.
StyleDuring the first two-thirds of the 20th century, the history of architecture
was treated as a history of style. A useful tool for connoisseurship, style
describes and defines the visible characteristics manifested by a period,
artistic center, or architect.75 According to this model, tradition becomes
the antithesis of style, that is, the conservative element in culture that
resists stylistic change. Whereas tradition is static through time but varies
geographically, style changes through time but is relatively independent
of regional context. Modifications in style are led by artistic innovation
from a perceived center, encountering varying degrees of resistance as
they spread out, and this preoccupation with the new has led critics to
attribute negative characteristics to tradition.
Because of the distinctive nature of Venetian building types, fostered
by the conservative reuse of foundations and the relative social stability,
innovations in architectural design tended to concern superficial stylistic
changes: from Gothic to Renaissance and thence to Baroque and Rococo.76
Interestingly, all these style names originated with negative connotations.
In Venice, stylistic transformations manifested themselves in the design
of windows, portals, altars, and interior decoration, and it was here that
both artists and patrons concentrated their inventiveness.
74 Ennio Concina, Tempo novo: Venezia nel Quattrocento (Venice, 2006).
75 For general observations on style, see, for example, J. S. Ackerman, “Style,” article of
1963 repr. in his Distance Points (Cambridge, Mass./London, 1991); E. H. Gombrich, “Style,”
International Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences (New York, 1968), vol. 15, pp. 352–61; and
Philip L. Sohm, Style in the Art Theory of Early Modern Italy (Cambridge, 2001).
76 Essays on Venetian architecture of particular periods may be found in general
studies of Italian architecture of the individual centuries, such as the Pelican History of Art
volumes: Ludwig H. Heydenreich, Architecture in Italy, 1400–1500, rev. by Paul Davies (New
Haven/London, 1996); Wolfgang Lotz, Architecture in Italy, 1500–1600, intro. by Deborah
Howard (New Haven/London, 1995); Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy 1600–
1750 , rev. by Joseph Connors and Jennifer Montagu, 3 vols (New Haven/London, 1999); and
the more recent series of multi-author monographs entitled Storia dell’architettura italiana
and edited by Francesco Dal Co (Milan, 1997–).