Bucentaur

The origin of the name bucintoro is obscure, but one possibility is that it is derived from the Venetian burcio, a traditional term for a lagoon vessel, and in oro, meaning covered in gold.

[1] On the other hand, man of letters Francesco Sansovino (1521–1586) proposed, based on documents dating from 1293, that it was named after an earlier boat built at the Arsenale shipyard called the navilium duecentorum hominum (lit.

[2] The term bucintoro was Latinized in the Middle Ages as bucentaurus on the analogy of an alleged Greek word βουκένταυρος (boukentauros) meaning "ox-centaur", from βους (bous, 'ox') and κένταυρος (kentauros, 'centaur').

[3] This derivation is, however, fanciful; the word βουκένταυρος is unknown in Greek mythology,[3] and representations of the "figurehead" of the bucentaurs in fact depict the Lion of Saint Mark.

Du Cange quotes from the chronicle of the Doge Andrea Dandolo (r. 1343–1354): "... cum uno artificioso et solemni Bucentauro, super quo venit usque ad S. Clementem, quo jam pervenerat principalior et solemnior Bucentaurus cum consiliariis, &c [... with a well-wrought and stately Bucentaur, upon which he came to San Clemente, where a more important and more stately Bucentaur had already arrived with his advisors, etc.

This is evidenced by the promissioni – sacramental pledges spoken by the doges when they were sworn into office – of Reniero Zeno of 1252, Lorenzo Tiepolo of 1268 and Giovanni Soranzo of 1312 which mention the construction of a bucentaur in the Arsenale shipyard and naval depot.

[7] The earliest known image of a bucentaur appeared in Jacopo de' Barbari's monumental woodcut Pianta di Venezia (Map of Venice) which was published in 1500.

[7] On 10 May 1526, Marino Sanuto the Younger recorded that on "Ascension Day the serenissimo [the Most Serene One – the doge] went in the new bucintoro to wed the sea", adding that "it was a beautiful work, larger and wider than the other one".

It was on the ship that in July 1574 Henry III of France was conveyed with the doge down the Grand Canal to the Ca' Foscari where he stayed during his visit to Venice.

[6][10] Despite Venice's economic and maritime decline, in 1601 at the behest of the Doge Marino Grimani,[12] the Venetian Senate decided to have a new bucentaur built at the cost of 70,000 ducats; although the existing one was still in service, experts regarded it as too old.

Contemporary illustrations show that the sides of the bucentaur were covered by mythical figures of sirens riding seahorses, and that the loggias were supported by curved dolphins amongst intertwined garlands and scrollwork taking on the form of monstrous hydras extending from the ends of the two bow spurs.

It was once believed that most of the wooden sculptures, including a large sculpture of Mars, two lions of St. Mark positioned on either side of the stern, and the figurehead of Justice (dressed in apparel made by the San Daniele Monastery),[12] were the work of the renowned Venetian sculptor Alessandro Vittoria, but research has revealed the names of the brothers Agostino and Marcantonio Vanini of Bassano who were praised as "authors of carvings of marvellous beauty".

A two-deck floating palace, its main salon was covered in red velvet, had 48 windows set in a huge, elaborately carved baldacchino or canopy, and had a seating capacity of 90.

The event was officially recorded, and the splendour of the vessel praised with sonnets and publications such as that by Antonio Maria Lucchini entitled La Nuova regia su l'acque nel Bucintoro nuovamente eretto all'annua solenne funzione del giorno dell'Ascensione di Nostro Signore (The New Palace upon the Waters of the Newly Built Bucentaur at the Annual Solemn Function of the Day of the Ascension of Our Lord, 1751).

Dieses Prunkschiff ist ein rechtes Inventarienstück, woran man sehen kann, was die Venezianer waren und sich zu sein dünkten.

The hull survived and, renamed the Prama Hydra and armed with four cannons, was stationed at the mouth of the Lido's port where it served as a coastal battery.

The form it took was a solemn procession of boats, headed by the doge's nave (ship), from 1311 the Bucentaur, putting out to sea from the port of Venice Lido.

"[18] It is intended that the project will make use of traditional shipbuilding techniques[18] and original materials, including larch and fir wood, and will reproduce gold decorations.

The foundation is supported by businessmen in the Veneto and Lombardy regions but has also written to the French President Nicolas Sarkozy for France to make a financial contribution as a goodwill gesture to compensate for Napoleon's "vandalism" of the 1729 vessel.

[1] Fondazione Bucintoro hoped that the vessel would become "the most visited floating museum in the world", but also saw the project as a means to "help Venice recover its former glory and its old spirit".

Lina Urban – Il Bucintoro – Centro Internazionale Grafica Veneziana, Venice 1988: (Italian) Media related to Bucentaur at Wikimedia Commons