Looming over them is the Archangel Michael. Michael holds a sword of justice in his right hand. A scroll in his left stating, “With a sword, I protect the good and wipe out the crimes of evil”.2 If someone were to be caught committing an unjust act, they would be executed between the Columns of Justice. Where the viewer of these sculptures stands. The sculptures instill the ideology that Venice both determines if someone acted unjustly while bringing justice to those who have sinned. Using biblical icons as a way to show divine support and their own divine origin that allows them the ability to do this. The balcony also depicts Venice’s ability to seperate good and evil, and prove their right to enact justice. The balcony shows this through their imagery of Adam and Eve and the Archangels. This iconography and symbolism is repeated around the palace, one of these places being the Arco Foscari where there are depictions of Adam and Eve, the Virgin Mary, as well as Mark and Theodore.3 Another being The Drunken Noah.

The Neoplatonist Boccaccio stated that both Baccus and Noah were the first to plant the vine, one for Greeks and the other for Hebrews, and therefore their depictions and interpretations are synonymous. Noah is interpreted as a man drunk with his passion. Bacchus has a dual depiction in antiquity, he is both good and evil4. This is similar to how Adam and Eve merged good and evil when picking the apple. Baccus brings both life and community but also animalistic destruction. He is often used to show what separates the good and the evil. He shows where the line is drawn between divine madness and vulgar excess.

Pico della Mirandola, whom Michelangelo would have met through the Medici family, discusses this sense of choice in the practice of good and evil. If you choose morality when in an altered state then you reach a divine state close to god. Although, you must be in this drunken state that brings you lower, only then can you detach from the immorality and choose a higher state, a divine state. Much like Michelangelo’s Bacchus, The Drunken Noah shows the divine madness that gets you close to god.

The Neoplatonist Fecino describes this detachment through the story of Narcissus viewing themselves in a river. As one is never satisfied with their reflection as the human body is imperfect. In the search for true beauty, we instead find the physical body, and it is only when we can detach ourselves from the allure of the physical human body that we can reach this divine realization. Michelangelo’s Bacchus, and in turn the drunken Noah, is a depiction of this state you reach once you have detached from the physical body and humanistic traits. There is an emphasis in the act of choice given to you to choose the animalistic and immoral lower path or to give yourself to god and ascend to this higher state of being.5

A depiction of The Drunken Noah is seen on the balcony of the Palazzo Ducale. This section of the balcony presides over the river. This depiction shows Noah leaning far forward in his altered state, while also peering away from the river and choosing this divine madness. You are given a choice at this moment.6 To look at your reflection in the water beneath you or above you at Noah, who is synonymous with Bacchus, and the divine depiction of true beauty and relativity to god. Thus making Venice and its city of travelers, merchants, artisans, and refugees able to reach enlightenment through Venice.

It is not only the sculptures that show the power and divinity of the city of Venice but also the arches themselves and their permeability. The wall of the home of the Doge being a permeable facade is extremely powerful in its own right, especially as it was on the water. Deborah Howard’s article discusses that the water was an extension of themselves, as they were a city of merchants and travelers.(7) So seeing this permeable space from the water with no need for protection with images of being in a divine state (The Drunken Noah and Venicia) and divine justice (Adam and Eve and the Archangel Michael), it proved their power and right to authority for anyone coming in and out of the city. That they are open to all people and face all elements of climate but they stand strong due to their divine right to be there.

The Venetians are not just stating their claim in the present but eternal. As the bright white Istrian stone balcony permeates across the outer facade of the building, it wraps around continuously, its archways repeating themselves. It is not only the sculptures that show the strength of Venice but the balcony arches that line the building mark the continuation of this power. This iconic pattern is repeated throughout the city as well, the Foscari Palace is a great example of this continuation of power throughout the generations.(8) As generations of artists and leaders worked to create the iconography originally designed by Andrea Dandello, in a dedication not often seen.(9)

However, there is one striation in the archway's repetition. A single pink Istrian stone archway captures your focus, bringing your attention further into the Piazza. It is in this spot, that one would stand, peering down at the viewer, much like Saint Michael above the Adam and Eve and proclaim that someone was to be executed. It is in their enactment of justice that allows for the continuity of the Venetian state and therefore must be highlighted. Mirrored on this wall of the balcony, there is an image of Venicia. Venice is depicted as the Mary of Mercy is often depicted. Making Venice the physical carrier and someone who has been bestowed divinity. At Ponte del Paradiso in Venice, over a walkway there is a Madonna della Misericordia that has the same visual depiction as the Venicia.10 This iconography is repeated throughout the city of Venice. Only this is explicitly depicting the city as a divine state. It also shows Venicia/Mary of Mercy holding the sword of justice and a scroll stating “Enthroned, strong and just, I vanquish by sea the furies beneath my feet”.11 This use of continuity and repetition depicts the Venetian resilience in structure and ideology. Venice stands strong and just, divinely established.

Footnotes:

1 Erica D’Amico, “Approaches and Perspectives on the Origins of Venice,” Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, 62 (2017): 209-230.

2 Savoy, Daniel. “Keeping the Myth Alive: Andrea Dandolo and the Preservation of Justice at the Palazzo Ducale in Venice.” Artibus et Historiae 36, no. 71 (2015): 9–29. `
3 Lorenzo Buonanno, “Making and Breaking,” in in The Performance of Sculpture in Renaissance Venice (New York: Routledge, 2022), 142-196.

4 Carman, Charles H. “Michelangelo’s ‘Bacchus’ and Divine Frenzy.” Source: Notes in the History of Art 2, no. 4 (Summer 1983): 6–13.

5 Carman, Charles H. “Michelangelo’s ‘Bacchus’ and Divine Frenzy.” Source: Notes in the History of Art 2, no. 4 (Summer 1983): 6–13.
6 Savoy, Daniel. “Keeping the Myth Alive: Andrea Dandolo and the Preservation of Justice at the Palazzo Ducale in Venice.” Artibus et Historiae 36, no. 71 (2015): 9–29.

7. Deborah Howard, “Trade and Travel,” in Venice & the East: The Impact of the Islamic World on Venetian Architecture 1100-1500 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 15-42, 224-228.

8 Bartolomeo Bono, Ca’ Foscari (Foscari Palace) Circa 1452, based on Doge’s Palace design: Giffen, Erin. “Venice Piazza San Marco.” Lecture, Medieval and Renaissance Venice, Skidmore College, Tang, February 20th, 2024.

9. Savoy, Daniel. “Keeping the Myth Alive: Andrea Dandolo and the Preservation of Justice at the Palazzo Ducale in Venice.” Artibus et Historiae 36, no. 71 (2015): 9–29.

10. Unidentified sculptor, Madonna della Misericordia (or, Mary of Mercy), c. 1345, bas-relief on Istrian stone (138 x 170 cm) located on the left exterior side of the church of San Tomà, in Venice: Giffen, Erin. “Venice The Patriarchate.” Lecture, Medieval and Renaissance Venice, Skidmore College, Tang, February 30th, 2024.

11. Savoy, Daniel. “Keeping the Myth Alive: Andrea Dandolo and the Preservation of Justice at the Palazzo Ducale in Venice.” Artibus et Historiae 36, no. 71 (2015): 9–29. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24595926.

Work Cited:

Erica D’Amico, “Approaches and Perspectives on the Origins of Venice,” Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, 62 (2017): 209-230.

Savoy, Daniel. “Keeping the Myth Alive: Andrea Dandolo and the Preservation of Justice at the Palazzo Ducale in Venice.” Artibus et Historiae 36, no. 71 (2015): 9–29. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24595926.

Lorenzo Buonanno, “Making and Breaking,” in in The Performance of Sculpture in Renaissance Venice (New York: Routledge, 2022), 142-196.

Carman, Charles H. “Michelangelo’s ‘Bacchus’ and Divine Frenzy.” Source: Notes in the History of Art 2, no. 4 (Summer 1983): 6–13. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23202325.

Jacopo Sansovino, Bacchus with Faun, Marble, 1511-1512, Florence, Italy : Giffen, Erin. “Venice Perfect forms.” Lecture, Medieval and Renaissance Venice, Skidmore College, Tang, March 19th, 2024.

Deborah Howard, “Trade and Travel,” in Venice & the East: The Impact of the Islamic World on Venetian Architecture 1100-1500 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 15-42, 224-228.

Bartolomeo Bono, Ca’ Foscari (Foscari Palace) Circa 1452, based on Doge’s Palace design: Giffen, Erin. “Venice Piazza San Marco.” Lecture, Medieval and Renaissance Venice, Skidmore College, Tang, February 20th, 2024.

Unidentified sculptor, Madonna della Misericordia (or, Mary of Mercy), c. 1345, bas-relief on Istrian stone (138 x 170 cm) located on the left exterior side of the church of San Tomà, in Venice: Giffen, Erin. “Venice The Patriarchate.” Lecture, Medieval and Renaissance Venice, Skidmore College, Tang, February 30th, 2024.