The Portal
The portal of Ca' Foscari is today the main entrance of the building and has been restored in 2008 by young graduated in the local university.
The portal is made of Istrian marble; of rectangular shape, it is surmounted by a lunette; on its perimeter it is decorated with chequered patterns. The coat of arms inside the lunette is composed of a central blazon and three putti (two at each side and one on the top); inside the blazon there is the winged lion of St. Mark holding an open book.
In 1797, with the arrival of Napoleon I, the families' blazons were abolished, so they were hidden or taken off. Often the blazons were covered with a coat of whitewash, such as in the case of the coat of arms of this portal.
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Famous quotes containing the word portal:
“Some sepulcher, remote, alone,
Against whose portal she hath thrown,
In childhood, many an idle stone—
Some tomb from out whose sounding door
She ne’er shall force an echo more,
Thrilling to think, poor child of sin!
It was the dead who groaned within.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“Little scavenger away,
touch not the door,
beat not the portal down.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)