Venetian Gothic Architecture

Venetian Gothic architecture developed in Venice from the 13th century, was at its height through the 14th century and persisted into the 15th because of the city's conservatism in building fashion. It is most distinctive in secular buildings rather than churches, using loggias of closely spaced slender columns carrying heavy tracery pierced with quatrefoil openings, ogee arches capped with ornamental relief and patterned coloured stonework on the facade, with tracery that in Venice often carries real structural weight rather than only framing glass as in northern Gothic buildings. The Doge's Palace, built mostly in the 14th century, and the Ca' d'Oro of 1428 to 1430 are its most celebrated examples, while Venice's Gothic churches such as the Frari and Santi Giovanni e Paolo are closer in form to churches elsewhere in Italy. The style saw a 19th century revival after the writings of John Ruskin, spreading into Victorian architecture in North America, Britain and Australia.