VENICE.- The Scala dei Giganti, a monumental marble staircase, is an iconic feature of the inner courtyard of the Palazzo Ducale. Built at the end of the 15th century (1486-1497) and designed by Antonio Rizzo, it is crowned with statues of Mars and Neptune by Jacopo Sansovino (1565). It once served as the entrance used by the Doge to access his private apartments and as a ceremonial entrance for receiving ambassadors visiting the Palace.
Over the past forty years, the staircase has undergone two restoration campaigns. Even so, it continues to show signs of decay that experts don't yet fully understand. Several factors may be at play: materials used in earlier restorations, tiny airborne organisms that settle on the stone, and climate change.
Save Venice and the Fondazione Save Venice – ETS, with generous support from The Gritti Palace, A Luxury Collection Hotel, Venice, are funding a pilot restoration of the staircase to investigate the root cause of the persistent decay.
The project, carried out in collaboration with the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, will develop a model for the monument's maintenance, drawing on a series of diagnostic tests and material analyses to identify the most effective conservation methods. The work will take approximately six months and will be conducted by conservator Jonathan Hoyte and scientists from CNR ICMATE of Padua. Their efforts will continue through the summer and milder autumn season. The treatment results will then be assessed for effectiveness the following winter, when the staircase is exposed to the harshest weather conditions.
History
Conceived by Antonio Rizzo and later crowned by Jacopo Sansovino’s sculptural vision, the Scala dei Giganti stands as one of the most eloquent expressions of Venetian magnificence. Once the grand stage for the Republic’s solemn rituals of state—from the Doge’s investiture to the reception of foreign ambassadors—the staircase embodied the splendor, harmony, and divine sanction of the Venetian Republic.
The Scala dei Giganti is a monumental marble staircase within the courtyard of the Palazzo Ducale, designed by the architect Antonio Rizzo between 1486 and 1487 and completed by 1497. Rizzo conceived it not merely as a passageway, but as a monument in its own right: a masterpiece of material richness and classical harmony. Its twenty-seven steps, carved entirely from luminous Istrian stone, are inlaid with fine niello—a dark alloy of sulfur, copper, silver, and lead that lends subtle contrast to the pale marble. The adjoining walls are faced with rose, gray, and white African breccia marble, while half-pilasters of Carrara marble, carved with all’antica candelabra motifs, reveal the Renaissance passion for classical ornament. Above, a broad landing spanning three arches of the loggia provides a dignified pause in the ascent, a threshold between the Palazzo courtyard and the piano nobile, where the machinery of state once unfolded.
In 1567, two colossal statues—Mars and Neptune, masterpieces by Jacopo Sansovino—were installed atop the balustrade, transforming Rizzo’s architectural vision into a stage of imperial grandeur. Their gleaming marble forms, defined by taut musculature and poised symmetry, command the landing of Rizzo’s staircase, uniting classical perfection with the authority of the Republic. It was these commanding figures that earned the staircase its enduring name: the Scala dei Giganti.
Sansovino’s Mars and Neptune were his final great commission for the Venetian state. In July 1554, he was awarded the substantial sum of 250 ducats and instructed to carve the giganti from two immense blocks of stone originally intended for the Doge’s apartments but later repurposed for this grand architectural ensemble. The Scala dei Giganti emerged as a living emblem of Venice’s dual identity: a vision of civic splendor and a stage for the solemn choreography of power, conceived to fuse architecture, ceremony, and ideology into a single expression of magnificence. From its marble steps, a ceremonial axis extended from the Gothic Porta della Carta—the palace’s ornate western entrance, completed in 1452 under Doge Francesco Foscari—to the doge’s private apartments and the state chambers beyond. Upon the upper landing of this majestic staircase, beginning in 1504, each newly elected doge received the camauro, the jeweled ducal cap, and swore his oath of office, marking his formal investiture. In time, the Scala dei Giganti also became the stage for welcoming visiting dignitaries and ambassadors, including cardinals, bishops, and papal legates.
Sansovino’s giganti epitomize the 16th-century fascination with colossal, over-life-size sculpture—a pursuit driven by ambitions that reached far beyond mere aesthetics. These monumental figures posed formidable technical challenges, demanding exceptional mastery in both design and execution. At the same time, they engaged in an artistic dialogue with the great colossi of Roman antiquity, such as the bronze statue of Nero once housed in the Domus Aurea and the surviving Dioscuri on the Quirinal Hill. This conscious evocation of ancient Rome was more than a stylistic homage. By adorning the seat of government with monumental sculpture, Venice asserted the Republic’s claim to imperial grandeur, aligning its political authority with the majesty and legacy of Rome itself.
Above the two giganti, centered within the upper arch, the Lion of Saint Mark—Venice’s timeless emblem—presides over the entrance to the state apartments. Much as Florence adopted David and Hercules as symbols of civic virtue and strength, Sansovino’s Mars and Neptune were enlisted into the visual language of Venetian power. Together, they proclaimed the Republic’s dominion over land and sea, while the winged lion above them affirmed divine sanction and the enduring legitimacy of the Venetian state.
Conservation
Although the Scala dei Giganti underwent restoration in the 1980s and subsequent maintenance in recent years, signs of deterioration have reemerged on the surfaces of the Istrian stone and marble, giving the monument a streaked and uneven appearance. An initial campaign of diagnostic studies will be carried out to identify the causes of these condition issues, alongside a pilot conservation project focusing on the statue of Mars and the upper landing of the staircase. This phase is expected to last approximately six months.
Conservators will conduct detailed investigations and cleaning tests on representative areas encompassing the different stone and marble types, as well as the various forms of deterioration visible across the monument, to assess whether materials used in past interventions are contributing to the current surface alterations. The findings will inform decisions on whether to proceed with the full conservation of the entire staircase.
