Save Venice is proud to announce the completion of the extensive conservation of the ceiling and monumental doors of the Room of the Four Doors in Palazzo Ducale, undertaken in collaboration with the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. The transformational results were presented to the public on Thursday, February 5, 2026.

The restoration of one of Palazzo Ducale’s most prestigious rooms began in November 2023 and was conducted by the Valentina Piovan and Co.New.Tech firms, working alongside technicians from the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per la città metropolitana di Venezia. Work encompassed the large Roman-style vaulted ceiling with its rich decoration of mural paintings and stuccoes, as well as the reinforcement and repair of the structural support system, the four marble doors with their accompanying sculptures and the canvases positioned behind them, as well as the stone window frames.

This space functioned as a hub of the institutional life of the Serenissima, where influential patricians, foreign diplomats, and royal visitors passed through on their way to meet with government officials. Dating to the late 1570s, the room was designed by Andrea Palladio and Giovanni Antonio Rusconi and features a vaulted ceiling enriched with mural paintings originally executed by Jacopo Tintoretto, and stucco sculptures and decoration by Giovanni Battista Cambio called “il Bombarda.” The four monumental polychrome marble portals, from which the room takes its name, are crowned by sculptural groups created by celebrated masters of late-sixteenth-century Venetian art: Alessandro Vittoria, Girolamo Campagna, Francesco Castelli, and Giulio dal Moro.

The campaign involved a comprehensive assessment of the ceiling’s condition, including detailed mapping of its state of preservation, visual and tactile examinations, and scientific analyses that allowed the team to identify layers added to the original paint surface over time. During the cleaning phase, a twentieth-century varnish and multiple overpaintings from earlier restorations were carefully removed, with analytical controls carried out both before and after treatment. Degraded fills were eliminated, the paint layer was consolidated, and numerous cracks and areas of loss were meticulously treated. Finally, following extensive iconographic and stylistic consultation with art historians and other specialists, missing areas and abrasions were reintegrated using watercolors and glazes, restoring a coherent and harmonious reading of the decorated surfaces.

WATCH NOW | A behind-the-scenes look at the two-year conservation treatment in the Room of the Four Doors. Video: Luca Benvenuti – Co.New.Tech

The most complex aspect of the project concerned the ceiling’s fragile structural support, which is critical to its long-term preservation. Conservators discovered that modifications made to the metal anchors in the nineteenth century had compromised their stability. The painted roundel of Venetia as Defender of Liberty, on the eastern side of the ceiling, had become particularly unstable as the underlying plaster had detached and sagged over time, and previous repairs had not fully resolved the issue. Careful inspection revealed a significant gap in the decayed reed support beneath the plaster, necessitating the gentle removal of the most damaged section. After protecting the painted surface and removing the old, ineffective metal anchors, the plaster was cleaned, reinforced, and supported with new lightweight materials. The section was then carefully repositioned to its original level, restoring the ceiling to its proper alignment.

The study of the ceiling paintings led to one of the most important technical discoveries of the project: the works were not executed as frescoes, but rather in oil paint applied over a ground of gypsum and glue, using a technique comparable to canvas painting. This method of execution, compounded by subsequent, not always documented interventions, has over time made the conservation of the surfaces and their legibility more complex.

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Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia (English)

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