thumb|350px|[[The Doge on the Bucintoro near the Riva di Sant'Elena (painting)|The Doge on the Bucintoro near the Riva di Sant'Elena (c. 1766–70) by Francesco Guardi]]

thumb|350px|An anonymous [[Portrait miniature|miniature, Sbarco dal Bucintoro del doge Sebastiano Ziani al Convento della Carità (The Doge Sebastiano Ziani Disembarking from the Bucentaur for the Convent of Charity, 16th century)]]

The bucentaur ( ; bucintoro in Italian and Venetian) was the ceremonial barge of the doges of Venice. It was used every year on Ascension Day (Festa della Sensa) up to 1798 to take the doge out to the Adriatic Sea to perform the "Marriage of the Sea" – a ceremony that symbolically wedded Venice to the sea.

Scholars believe there were four major barges, the first significant bucentaur having been built in 1311. The last and most magnificent of the historic bucentaurs made its maiden voyage in 1729 in the reign of Doge Alvise III Sebastiano Mocenigo. Depicted in paintings by Canaletto and Francesco Guardi, the ship was long and more than high. A two-deck floating palace, its main salon had a seating capacity of 90. The doge's throne was in the stern, and the prow bore a figurehead representing Justice with sword and scales. The barge was propelled by 168 oarsmen, and another 40 sailors were required to man it.

The ship was destroyed in 1798 on Napoleon's orders to symbolize his victory in conquering Venice. In February 2008, the Fondazione Bucintoro announced a €20 million project to rebuild the 1729 bucentaur. Work started on 15 March 2008 at the Arsenale shipyard and naval dock.

Origin of the name

The origin of the name bucintoro is obscure, but one possibility is that it is derived from the Venetian , a traditional term for a lagoon vessel, and , meaning covered in gold. On the other hand, man of letters Francesco Sansovino (1521–1586) proposed, based on documents dating from 1293, that it was named after an earlier boat built at the Arsenale shipyard called the (). It has also been suggested that the vessel was named after the ship referred to by Virgil when describing the funeral rites observed by Aeneas to honour his father's death; the bucentaur was twice the size of the ship mentioned in the Aeneid. The name may also derive from Latin buccinator and refer to the trumpets and horns that were played on board. The term was Latinized in the Middle Ages as on the analogy of an alleged Greek word () meaning "ox-centaur", from (, 'ox') and (, 'centaur'). The common supposition was that the name derived from a creature of a man with the head of an ox, a figure of which served as the barge's figurehead. This derivation is, however, fanciful; the word is unknown in Greek mythology,

The name "bucentaur" seems, indeed, to have been given to any great and sumptuous Venetian vessels. Du Cange quotes from the chronicle of the Doge Andrea Dandolo (): " [... with a well-wrought and stately Bucentaur, upon which he came to San Clemente, where a more important and more stately Bucentaur had already arrived with his advisors, etc. ...]".

The vessels

Before the age of the bucentaurs, it is probable that for ceremonies in the Venetian Lagoon the doge was simply assigned a small galley from the Venetian fleet. As Venice's wealth increased due to its naval power, plans were made for a special ship to be built. This is evidenced by the promissioni – sacramental pledges spoken by the doges when they were sworn into office – of Reniero Zeno of 1252, Lorenzo Tiepolo of 1268 and Giovanni Soranzo of 1312 which mention the construction of a bucentaur in the Arsenale shipyard and naval depot.

The 1311 bucentaur

Historians agree that four major barges were built.

The bucentaur was used not only for the Marriage of the Sea ceremony, but also for other state functions such as festivals celebrating the Virgin Mary and the bearing of newly crowned dogaressas (the wives of doges) to the Doge's Palace. On 6 May 1401, a law was passed to prohibit the doge from making private use of the bucentaur.

Documents mention the construction of another bucentaur in 1449 larger than the 1311 one, but little is known about this vessel.

This bucentaur was frequently referred to in Venetian chronicles. It was on the ship that in July 1574 Henry III of France was conveyed with the doge down the Grand Canal to the Ca' Foscari where he stayed during his visit to Venice. The ship was also used to transport the newly crowned Dogaressa Morosina Morosini-Grimani to the Doge's Palace on 4 May 1597. This event was the subject of numerous etchings and paintings by Giacomo Franco, Andrea Vicentino, Sebastian Vrancx and anonymous artists.

thumb|center|496px|[[Sebastian Vrancx's Trionfo sul Bucintoro in Bacino San Marco di Morosina Morosini Grimani (The Triumphal Entry of Morosina Morosini-Grimani on the Bucentaur into St. Mark's Basin, 17th century)]]

The 1606 bucentaur

thumb|upright|A bucentaur, from the [[Folger Shakespeare Library's copy of Giacomo Franco's Habiti d'hvomeni et donne venetiane (Dress of Venetian Men and Ladies, 1609?)]]

Despite Venice's economic and maritime decline, in 1601 at the behest of the Doge Marino Grimani, the Venetian Senate decided to have a new bucentaur built at the cost of 70,000 ducats; although the existing one was still in service, experts regarded it as too old. The designer of the new ship is unknown, but he was selected from among the most qualified marangoni (ships' carpenters) of the Arsenale. and the construction of it began in the Arsenale in 1722. the protomagistro dei marangoni (head master of the ships' carpenters). Wooden sculpting work was assigned to Antonio Corradini, as was testified by the phrase "Antonii Coradini sculptoris Inventum" ("invention of the sculptor Antonio Corradini") inscribed near the bow palmette. He was an established sculptor, having already worked on commissions in Austria, Bohemia and Saxony. The gilding, in pure gold leaf, was handled by one Zuanne D'Adamo. Some of the 1606 ship's ornaments and sculptures, including the sculpture of Mars and the two lions of St. Mark, were salvaged and reused.

The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in his work Italienische Reise (Italian Journey, 1816–1817) which was an account of his travels in Italy between 1786 and 1787, described the bucentaur on 5 October 1786 in these terms:

In 1798, Napoleon ordered this bucentaur to be destroyed, less for the sake of its golden decorations than as a political gesture to symbolize his victory in conquering the city. French soldiers broke up the carved wooden portions and the gold decorations of the ship into small pieces, carted them to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore and set fire to them to recover the gold. until it was entirely destroyed in 1824. Since then, no further news have been published about the planned reconstruction of the vessel, leading many to believe that the project was abandoned.

{| align=center

|thumb|center|Cross-section of the proposed modern reconstruction, displayed in [[Piazza San Marco|St. Mark's Square]]

|thumb|center|A photograph of a model of the Bucintoro by Italian photographer [[Carlo Naya (1816–1882)]]

|}

See also

  • History of the Republic of Venice
  • Italy in the Middle Ages
  • The Doge on the Bucintoro near the Riva di Sant'Elena, an oil on canvas by Francesco Guardi

Notes

References

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  • .
  • . A translation of an extract from .
  • Official website of the Fondazione Bucintoro. Retrieved on 29 February 2008.
  • .

Further reading

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Articles

  • Franco, Giacomo (c. 1609), [Illustration from Habiti d'huomeni et donne venetiane &#91;Dress of Venetian Men and Ladies&#93;] in .
  • .

Books

  • (Italian and French).
  • (Italian).

Lina Urban – Il Bucintoro – Centro Internazionale Grafica Veneziana, Venice 1988: (Italian)

  • Homepage of the Fondazione Bucintoro