Capitals ‘On the Move’. Moulding Venetian Palaces Through the Use of Byzantine Spolia

The aim of the paper is to present some clearly visible but little studied case studies of Byzantine spolia (especially column capitals) reused in Venetian palazzi. These palaces, considered to be the oldest ones built in Venice, feature traits of Byzantine imperial architecture from the Early Medieval period. Even if the archaeological investigation of the foundations of Venetian palaces does not provide definitive explanations for the underlying relationship between Venice and Constantinople, the analysis of these case studies lets us better understand the visual heritage of the Venetians and their search for an imagined/desired/reconstructed Constan- tinople in Venice.