Some remnants of the Ziani Palace were perhaps still
left between the two extremities of the Gothic Palace; or as is more
probable, the last stones of it may have been swept away after the fire
of 1419, and replaced by new apartments for the Doge. But whatever
buildings, old or new, stood on this spot at the time of the completion
of the Porta della Carta were destroyed by another great fire in 1479,
together with so much of the palace on the Rio that, though the saloon
of Gradenigo, then known as the Sala de' Pregadi, was not destroyed, it
became necessary to reconstruct the entire facades of the portion of the
palace behind the Bridge of Sighs, both towards the court and canal.
This work was entrusted to the best Renaissance architects of the close
of the fifteenth and opening of the sixteenth centuries; Antonio Ricci
executing the Giant's staircase, and on his absconding with a large sum
of the public money, Pietro Lombardo taking his place. The whole work
must have been completed towards the middle of the sixteenth century.
The architects of the palace, advancing round the square and led by
fire, had more than reached the point from which they had set out; and
the work of 1560 was joined to the work of 1301-1340, at the point
marked by the conspicuous vertical line in Figure II on the Rio Facade.
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