BUORA, Giovanni di Antonio - b. ~1450 Osteno, d. 1513 Venezia - WGA

BUORA, Giovanni di Antonio

(b. ~1450 Osteno, d. 1513 Venezia)

Italian sculptor and architect. He was born in the Lake Lugano region on the mainland, and worked in Venice from 1480 onward. He died in Venice. He made the columns and carved the capitals that define the three aisles in San Zaccaria, Venice. He also made the doorway of San Zaccaria, Venice. He appears frequently in the Venetian records, especially in association with Pietro Lombardo, in the construction of the Scuola di San Marco in Venice, in 1489 and 1490, after it caught fire in 1485. His name has been associated with the design of the graceful, early 15th-century Palazzo Michiel on the Fondamenta della Sensa in Canareggio. He probably worked with Mauro Codussi on the Palazzo Contarini dal Zaffo on the Grand Canal. Buora worked on the monastery building and cypress garden on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, now the Cini Foundation headquarters and exhibition space.

Palazzo Grimani Marcello: Façade
Palazzo Grimani Marcello: Façade by

Palazzo Grimani Marcello: Façade

The current building is the result of the restoration of a pre-existing building, probably dating back to the 12th century. The fa�ade and the restoration works had been commissioned by the Grimani family from the architect Giovanni Buora, who realised the current building with its architectural and ornamental features from the late Lombard period.

The fa�ade is completely clad with stone. On the ground floor there is an arched water gate decorated with contrasting marble medallions. The ground floor rectangular windows are surmounted by a triangular tympanum resting on a slightly extended architrave. The first and second floors have three-mullioned windows with balcony. The fa�ade is divided into three, according to the style of the era, by pilasters with Corinthian capitals. Much attention was paid to the decoration of the fa�ade, with precious marble medallions and rectangles, festoons.

During the 18th century the internal structure of the palace was radically modified.

Palazzo Grimani Marcello: Façade
Palazzo Grimani Marcello: Façade by

Palazzo Grimani Marcello: Façade

The current building is the result of the restoration of a pre-existing building, probably dating back to the 12th century. The fa�ade and the restoration works had been commissioned by the Grimani family from the architect Giovanni Buora, who realised the current building with its architectural and ornamental features from the late Lombard period.

The fa�ade is completely clad with stone. On the ground floor there is an arched water gate decorated with contrasting marble medallions. The ground floor rectangular windows are surmounted by a triangular tympanum resting on a slightly extended architrave. The first and second floors have three-mullioned windows with balcony. The fa�ade is divided into three, according to the style of the era, by pilasters with Corinthian capitals. Much attention was paid to the decoration of the fa�ade, with precious marble medallions and rectangles, festoons.

During the 18th century the internal structure of the palace was radically modified.

Palazzo Grimani Marcello: Façade
Palazzo Grimani Marcello: Façade by

Palazzo Grimani Marcello: Façade

The current building is the result of the restoration of a pre-existing building, probably dating back to the 12th century. The fa�ade and the restoration works had been commissioned by the Grimani family from the architect Giovanni Buora, who realised the current building with its architectural and ornamental features from the late Lombard period.

The fa�ade is completely clad with stone. On the ground floor there is an arched water gate decorated with contrasting marble medallions. The ground floor rectangular windows are surmounted by a triangular tympanum resting on a slightly extended architrave. The first and second floors have three-mullioned windows with balcony. The fa�ade is divided into three, according to the style of the era, by pilasters with Corinthian capitals. Much attention was paid to the decoration of the fa�ade, with precious marble medallions and rectangles, festoons.

During the 18th century the internal structure of the palace was radically modified.

Virgin and Child with Saints and Donors
Virgin and Child with Saints and Donors by

Virgin and Child with Saints and Donors

At about 1490, the physician Jacopo Surian commissioned an altarpiece from Buora that included portraits of himself and his wife as supplicants before the Virgin’s throne. The saints flanking the throne are St James the Greater and St James the Less. The choice of the expensive medium of bronze is decidedly pretentious, as is the inscription on the base of the throne, which compares Surian with Aristotle and Galen.

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