ABSTRACT
The performance of public ceremonies and festivities was a central aspect of Venetian life during the Renaissance and Baroque ages. These performances took place in the public spaces of the city, which had been planned and modified through the centuries to respond to the requirements of such rituals. State ceremonies were an essential part of the life of the Serenissima and have, since ancient times, come to define the image of the city. Over the ages, Venetians have built and transformed their city, adapting to the needs of a complex civic ritual the city’s irregular maze of land and water paths, and the articulated structure of its buildings and open spaces where ceremonies were held. Indeed, we cannot understand the development of Piazza San Marco and the smaller Piazzetta, their surrounding buildings and the San Marco basin with its banks and monuments, unless we take into consideration the way festivals regularly animated these spaces, attracting huge crowds. The fine-tuning of Venice’s celebratory rituals and the building of the city proceeded in parallel, one adapted to the other.
