Well-head

"Venice is in water and has no water" wrote the Venetian patrician and diarist Marin Sanudo (1466-1536), about the city built in a lagoon on tiny islands and wooden pilings. In the absence of a srouce of fresh water, it had to be either shipped from the mainland by barge or collected from rain. The Venetians developed an elaborate rainwater collection system, filtering and storing the precious resource underground, which could be accessed through public and private well-heads like the present work. This important 15th-century example was acquired by the Minneapolis Institute of Art the year the museum opened in 1915. Few early well-heads can be found outside Venice. This one comes from the Palazzo Zorzi at San Giorgio dei Greci (see Zorzi coat-of-arms carved in relief), which had a noteworthy courtyard decorated with all'antica sculpture figures and busts. The well-head's marble carving is of exceptional quality and remains vibrant, particularly the rendering of the large acanthus leaves, despite centuries of wear from the outdoor elements.