venetian architecture 777
Doge Andrea Gritti.118 Overweight and suffering from gout, Gritti became
unable to climb the steep narrow stairs to the octagonal porphyry-rimmed
pulpit just outside the rood-screen. In consequence, Sansovino installed a
new ducal throne in the chancel, surrounded by new seating for the high-
est dignitaries of state. The clergy were thus forced to move to the back
of the chancel near the high altar. The transfer of the ducal party into the
presbytery gave added sanctity to the role of the doge.
Recent attention to the relation of liturgy to its architectural setting has
opened up new approaches to the study of ecclesiastical space.119 Inves-
tigations into institutional patronage, complemented by new research in
religious history, have encouraged a more interdisciplinary approach to
research in ecclesiastical architecture. Church interiors may now more
easily be viewed as settings for devotional practices and cults, their spaces
brought to life by music and liturgy. The interaction between lay and reli-
gious patronage, too, informs the study of tombs and monuments, cha-
pel decoration and works of art. Francesco Sansovino’s list of the ducal
andate—the doge’s annual visits to 11 particular churches—highlights
their former prominence in the liturgical calendar, but even the surviv-
ing ceremonial books are often tantalizingly reticent about the spatial
choreography of these visits.120 Lively snippets in Sanudo’s diaries record
some of the uses of individual churches, and the apostolic and patriar-
chal visitations of the Counter Reformation help to reconstruct devotional
practices, but the positions of musicians, clergy, and singers are not easily
disentangled.121
* * *Venice and the Veneto offer unrivaled opportunities to the architectural
historian in their historic patrimony and rich archival resources. The
profusion of research over the last few decades has opened up new
approaches, ranging from micro-history to broader thematic studies, and
from theoretical enquiries to surveys of building fabric. But architectural
history is far more than the history of architecture: in urban life it is the
118 Deborah Howard, Sound and Space in Renaissance Venice: Architecture, Music,
Acoustics (New Haven/London, 2009), pp. 26–42, with further bibliography.
119 Jorg Stabenow, ed., Lo spazio e il culto: Relazioni tra l’edificio ecclesiale e il suo uso
liturgico dal XV al XVII secolo (Venice, 2006); Iain Fenlon, The Ceremonial City: History,
Memory and Myth in Renaissance Venice (New Haven/London, 2007); Howard and Moretti,
Sound and Space.
120 Sansovino, Venetia città nobilissima, fols. 193v–206v.
121 Howard and Moretti, Sound and Space.