A new restoration project by Piaget: the clock of the Ducal Palace
After 1,070 years of independence, the Republic of Venice was conquered by Napoleon’s armies in 1797. This put an end to the glowing influence of what had become Europe’s most refined and elegant city in the 18th century, exercising a powerful impact on art, architecture and literary. The Ducal Palace, representing the political, administrative and judicial hub of the Republic, was built between 1340 and 1441. The doge or duke who was elected for life from among the greatest noble families had his residential apartments on the first floor. He was assisted and monitored in his management of the Republic by the Grand Council comprising around 2,000 members. Only the richest families in Venice took part in the political life of the State-City.
The system of time measurement prevailing at that time in Venice was not merely dependent on the ancient Sant’Alipio clock located at the north-eastern corner of the gigantic Torre dell’Orologio, or to the chimes of the Campanile. At the very heart of political power represented by the Ducal Palace, there were plenty of machines for counting out time. During the reconstruction of the palace after the great fires of the 1570s, a large clock endowed with several functions and various dials was installed to serve the political bodies that convened in various rooms of the palace.
In the 17th century, with the demolition of the so-called “leaden” outer staircase, the architect Bartolomeo Manopola found an extremely interesting solution. He replaced the staircase by a new façade facing the courtyard, which he transformed into a baroque, eclectic and singular stage setting with a clock as its centrepiece. This clock and its bell (nicknamed “death pangs” because of its “agonizingly” slow ringing) measured off time in this kind of open square which was in fact the inner courtyard of the palace.
This horological machine was a paragon of its kind in terms of simplicity and quality and its counterweights plumbed the mysterious depths of the Palace to skim over the waters of an antique canal that is now buried underground.
The restoration operations currently being undertaken by Piaget have uncovered the following inscription engraved on one of the bases of the mechanism : “Johan Slim – July 1614 – Aug.”. This is the name of the clocwmaker (probably a German) who built it. The mechanism now being renovated is thus the original one corresponding to the construction period of the façade.
But the technical characteristics of this mechanism featured shapes and technical solutions reflecting the work of Bartolomeo Ferraccina (the watchmaker behind the mechanism of the clock in the Torre dell’Orologio): this would of course appear to imply that the latter may have been partially modified half way through the 18th century, while retaining the spaces and passages of the original version, and especially respecting the strange cell suspended behind the dial – one of the main reasons behind the fascination still exercised by the courtyard clock.
The restoration of the courtyard clock of the Ducal Palace thereby represents an opportunity to renew the fruitful cooperation between the City of Venice and the Maison Piaget, which is thus symbolically submitting its candidacy to be regarded as the “Horologer of Venice”.
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