The Odoni Façade

Girolamo da Treviso, Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist, Two Saints, and Sabba da Castiglione as Donor (1533), fresco. Faenza, Chiesa della Commenda.

Girolamo da Treviso, Fishing Scene in the Sala dei Venti (1527-1528), fresco. Mantua, Palazzo Te.

Breaking the Rules

Odoni lived in a modest-sized house on the Fondamenta del Gaffaro, in a peripheral area of Venice, indicating his social ranking outside of the city's elite. Located on an unusually wide street and overlooking one of the main waterways leading to the Grand Canal, the residence would have been seen by many people passing by. And with its ornate and colourful frescoed exterior, unusual for Venetian homes at the time, it would certainly have been noticed.

Odoni’s extravagant façade went against Venice's rules of decorum, which called for its citizens to present themselves, and their houses, in a uniform rather than individualised way. Venetians were discouraged from standing out, and when it came to their homes, the façade was considered a way of promoting the harmony of the city rather than one’s own identity. Odoni was, therefore, challenging the imposed social order. He was not the only rebel: other Venetians ostentatiously decorated their façades with marble and gold. Compared to these, Odoni’s decision to decorate the façade of his house with frescoes, which required greater skill and artistry, suggests his wish to be seen as a sophisticated man of the arts.

Artist and Style

The fresco decorating Odoni’s casa was painted by Girolamo da Treviso (1497-1544) in 1531-32. Other frescoed façades existed in Venice at that time, but few on private residences, and none in Girolamo’s distinctively Tuscan-Roman style. Instead of commissioning a local artist, Odoni’s choice of Girolamo, whose influences came from central Italy, suggests he wanted his house to look different. By distinguishing his casa in the visual panorama of the city, he distinguished himself within Venetian society.

Two frescoes by Girolamo, painted in the years shortly before and after the Odoni façade, provide insight into Girolamo's individual style at that point in his career. One is a fresco located in the apse of the Chiesa della Commenda in Faenza, painted in 1533, in which he portrays immense figures against an architectural background, as it is suggested he also did in Odoni’s fresco. The other is an earlier work in the Palazzo Te in Mantua, dated to 1527-28, depicting a lively scene of fishermen hauling in their nets. While neither of these frescoes share the classical subject matter of the Odoni commission, the vibrant colours and dynamic arrangement of figures help us to imagine how the Odoni façade might have looked.

A Chorus of Gods

Accounts describing the Odoni fresco written between 1550 and 1674 enable us to visualise its subject matter. In the centre of the composition, surrounded by flying cherubs and the Graces, there was ‘a chorus of gods’ as seventeenth century writer Marco Boschini describes it. Below this central group stood the figures of Apollo and Minerva. Associated with the arts and classical knowledge, their presence would have alerted passers-by to the refined and intellectual nature of the homeowner and his visitors, and to the art collection behind these walls. All of these figures were depicted in colour, in contrast with surrounding decorations and portrayals of statues painted in chiaroscuro. 

The central group of gods included a corpulent Bacchus accompanied by a corn-bearing Ceres. Associated with the fruits of summer and the harvest of autumn, the god of wine and goddess of agriculture are a celebration of fertility. This may have alluded to Odoni’s professional involvement with wine, but perhaps also an interest in the continuation of the family line. Alongside Bacchus and Ceres, we are told of another goddess, holding a vase. Vasari describes her as Juno, but a more modern interpretation suggests she could have been Venus, who was often accompanied by the Graces. This scene may have referenced the classical proverb ‘Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus’ (without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus freezes, implying that without food and wine, love grows cold), as seen in the below engraving by Jacob Matham (1571-1631), produced between 1599-1603 following his visit to Venice.

Matham depicts a vase-bearing Venus accompanied by Bacchus, picking grapes, and Ceres, with ears of corn in her hair. The engraving is based on a work by Titian, which tells us that this proverb was being illustrated by Venice’s most influential artists around the time Odoni lived. The below examples of engravings similar to Matham's, depicted in the late sixteenth and early seventeeth centuries, reveal alternative ways this proverb was represented.

The proverb is concerned with lascivious sensory pleasure, which in Odoni’s fresco is countered by the presence of the dignified Graces, and also by Apollo and Minerva. Therefore, the overall composition of the fresco could allude to the decadent entertaining that took place in Odoni’s home, within an environment of appreciation for the arts, knowledge, and antiquity. Indeed, Vasari described the Odoni casa as 'a friendly haven for men of creative talent'.