Perspectival Cross-Section of a Venetian Palace
Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc
1830–79 · Pen and gray ink, brush and light wash, metal point framing lines, with small spatters of brown wash · Drawings and Prints

In 1836 and 1837 the young architect Viollet-le-Duc traveled through Italy and became especially enamored with Venice, which he greatly preferred over Rome. He admired the way the principles of the Byzantine and the Gothic styles had merged with the classical tradition in Venetian architecture and how the overabundant Rococo seemed to have had little influence. Years later, when he had become a true champion of Neo-Gothic architecture, he treated Venice in his famous publication Entretiens sur l’architecture (Discourses on Architecture). In this preparatory sketch for plate 32, Le-Duc opens up the faade of the building to show the interior structure of a Venetian palace.
- Artist
- Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc
- Date
- 1830–79
- Medium
- Pen and gray ink, brush and light wash, metal point framing lines, with small spatters of brown wash
- Department
- Drawings and Prints
- Credit line
- Purchase, Anne Stern Gift, 1982











