Ca’D’Oro, which, aside from its phenomenally sculpted marble exterior ... more

museum - http://selectitaly.com/museums.php?city_id=23&product_id=150

This exquisite Venetian Gothic palace was once literally a "Golden House," when its marble traceries and ornaments were embellished with pure gold. Created in 1434 by the enamored patrician Marino Contarini for his wife, Ca' d'Oro became a love offering a second time when a 19th-century Russian prince gave it to Maria Taglioni, a celebrated classical dancer who collected palaces along the Grand Canal. The last proprietor, perhaps more taken with Venice than with any of his lovers, left Ca' d'Oro to the city, after having had it carefully restored and filled with antiquities, sculptures, and paintings that today make up the Galleria Franchetti. Besides Mantegna's celebrated St. Sebastian and other first-rate Venetian works, the Galleria Franchetti contains the type of fresco that once adorned the exteriors of Venetian buildings (commissioned by those who could not afford a marble facade). One such detached fresco displayed here was made by a young Titian for the (now grayish-white) facade of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, now the main post office. COST: EUR5; EUR11 includes Accademia and Museo Orientale. OPEN: Tues.-Sun. 8:15-7:15, Mon. 8:15-2; last entry ½ hr before closing. Ca' d'Oro.

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wikipedia of Ca D Oro

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