June 26th – Visit to the Palazzo Ducale’s “Room of the Four Doors”

We were invited to join a group of American students from the Pratt Institute on a visit to the “Room of the Four Doors” in the Doge’s Palace.

We met in Saint Mark’s Square to get tour badges, allowing us to bypass the line for the exhibit and enter through a temporary barrier leading to the conservation site. We climbed a few levels of ladders and stairs to the top level where we were face to face with the plaster cultures and oil-painted ceilings.

We got a short explanation of the different aspects of the ceiling and sculpture and looked at old pictures and maps of the conservation process. Many of the paintings had been stabilized with patches of Japanese rice paper, supporting the deteriorating paint and varnish layers. Almost all of the sculptures were already cleaned, although many of them had spots here and there that were set aside for further investigation. All of the painting frames and most of the embellishments were fully gilded, sparkling after their cleaning.

We saw two other conservators at work there. One performed some paint retouching on a smaller side painting while the other delicately cleaned one of the few marble statues.

Here is Save Venice’s informational link for the Room of the Four Doors: https://www.savevenice.org/project/campaign-for-the-room-of-the-four-doors-at-the-palazzo-ducale

See below some of our pictures from this visit!