Ca’ d’Oro
Grand Canal, Cannaregio,
Venice
Ca’ d’Oro: the roots of the name
Ca’ d’Oro is my first memory of feeling Venice. It was my mother’s favourite palazzo on the Canal Grande of Venice. It was clearly visible from the vaporetto, beautifully resplendent with the majestic intricacies of its Venetian Gothic facade, rising from the milky-green waters, defiant of the laws of physics and rational aesthetics. I could tell that there was something personal about this building that was precious to her. Perhaps, a favourite of her own mother. Was this disclosure some kind of intangible dowry to be passed on? I will never know, but Ca’ d’Oro appears in my life time and time again.
As a young child, I viewed it in its entirety: light-dark, openings-closures, four-leaf-clovers. As I now grow older, my analytical eye processes selective elements: order-disorder, congruity-incongruity, symmetry-asymmetry, functionality-aesthetics, fortunes made and fortunes lost …and found again.
As my eyes move along its rhythms, I cannot but marvel at its staggering adaptation to its environment, gripping proudly to beauty for a survival against all odds. Daughter of the grand madam of immense beauty and prestige: this is Venice.