Doge's Palace, Venice,

ca. 1865

Ponti exposed these photographs from vantage points only a few paces apart. They emphasize the role of spolia (elements taken from prior structures) at the spot where Saint Mark’s Basilica abuts the palace of the Doge, the civil, judicial, and<br>ecclesiastic leader of the Venetian Republic. In the foreground of each image is the cornerstone of the Treasury of Saint Mark’s: a sculpture representing the<br>Tetrarchs (four emperors) who were joint rulers of the extensive Roman Empire at the turn of the fourth century C.E. The porphyry sculpture is believed to have been stolen by Venetian forces from the porch of Constantinople’s Philadelphion palace in the early thirteenth century, during the Fourth Crusade.