This, next to the Ducal Palace, is the most elaborate and it might be
said the most beautiful of the Gothic Venetian palaces. It has been
considerably changed in the various restorations to which it has been
subjected, but still has enough of its original features to remain
a wonderfully beautiful building. It is an extreme example of the
characteristic disregard of the ordinary principles of building
construction to be found throughout the work we have been considering.
Fergusson's remarks upon this failing of the Venetian architects is
pointed and well considered. He says: "Most of the faults that strike
us in the buildings of Venice arise from the defective knowledge which
they betray of constructive principles. The Venetian architects had
not been brought up in the hard school of practical experience, nor
thoroughly grounded in construction, as the northern architects were
by the necessities of the large buildings which they erected. On the
contrary, they merely adopted details because they were pretty,
and used them so as to be picturesque in domestic edifices where
convenience was everything, and construction but a secondary
consideration."

The Cà D'oro was probably built about the middle of the fourteenth
century.

Evidences of the use of color in this façade can be plainly seen in
the photographic views, and the contrast of the deep shadows and flat
wall surfaces is strikingly beautiful.