794 wolfgang wolters
of the long-nurtured literary “Venice myth” and alluded to the responsibil-
ities of the council. the newly created chambers in the east wing offered
an opportunity to modernize the decorations in respect to their content
as well.
Understanding the pictures in the chamber of the council of ten as
well as the paintings on the vaulting of the Scala d’Oro was difficult even
at that time, if it was even expected at all. the inner coherence as regards
the content of the pictures by Battista Franco (c.1510–61) and the reliefs
by Alessandro Vittoria on the vaulting of the staircase has still not been
explained. An instigating force for the installation of the staircase could
have been Sansovino’s staircase in the Palace of the Procurators, which
Franco and Vittoria also decorated with allegorical themes in the same
year. in order to understand both decorations, familiarity with the con-
tents of the very popular iconographic handbooks now available, and
knowledge of the core principles of the literary myth of Venice, and thus
also Venetian propaganda, is a prerequisite.
the burning of the Doge’s Palace in 1574 and 1577 offered the opportu-
nity to enrich the gutted chambers with new and more current themes.
especially important visual documents, such as the images in the Hall
of the Great council and the devotional images of the doges of the
16th century, were newly painted, which was designated as restauro. After
1577, the Senate commissioned intellectuals to devise an artistic agenda
to be presented to the painters. the events to be depicted were briefly
summarized, and page-specific bibliographic references were offered for
in-depth study for the histories. For the allegories, the painters were sup-
posed to adhere strictly to the texts. the goal of the painting of the Sala
del Maggior consiglio and of the Sala dello Scrutinio, which belonged
together functionally, was to show the whole world that the republic had
been distinguished from the very beginning by the virtuous actions of its
citizens and by military success. On the walls of the Great council, the
different junctures in the Venetian account of the events surrounding the
Peace of Venice of 1177 are supplemented with pictures concerned with
the controversial “impresa di costantinopoli” (the 4th crusade, 1202–04).
in the consideration of which past events would be depicted, current
political considerations played a role. the Francophilia of the incumbent
Doge niccolò da Ponte was well known; to influential representatives
of the republic, an alliance with France, just as in 1202 with the Franks,
appeared to offer advantages. However, the politics of the day were sel-
dom obvious in images. thus, the resistance against the Ottomans and
the naval victory of the League, to which Venice belonged, at Lepanto