Cultural legacy and cultural contamination in a changing world: travel, diplomacy, and architectural patronage of Leonardo Donà dalle Rose (1536–1612) in early modern Venice

For centuries diplomats and merchants served as intermediaries in Europe and the Mediterranean basin, forging intercultural contaminations. Focusing on the early modern “global turn”, the paper investigates Venetian patronage of architecture as an attempt, promoted by a part of the political elite, to preserve a legacy endangered by globalisation. The topic is explored concentrating on the travels and ambassadorial assignments of a key political figure of late sixteenth-century Venice, Leonardo Donà dalle Rose (1536–1612), who became doge at the end of his career. He had a unique role in the building of Venice, actively participating in all the commissions responsible for the city’s major architectural works of the period (Redentore, Fondamenta Nuove, Procuratie Nuove, Rialto Bridge, San Giorgio Maggiore, Palmanova, in addition to his own palace and tomb). But to what degree did he determine the built aspect of Venice? To reply to this question, it became fruitful investigating what he had possibly retained of his life of diplomatic practice and cross-cultural exchange. In spite of the fact that it was intensely international (he went on the Adriatic costs, Cyprus, Spain, Rome, Istanbul, Vienna) and culturally open (he was in contact with leading minds such as Bruno, Galilei, and Sarpi), one can argue that, in searching for the creation a true “venetian architecture” tied to ancient civic traditions, Donà was trying to maintain an independent culture in a changing world.