engineering

Punta della Dogana

Punta della Dogana is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Punta della Dogana rather than just read about it. In short: Punta della Dogana is an art museum in one of Venice's old customs buildings, the Dogana da Mar. It also refers to the triangular area of Venice where the Grand Canal meets the Giudecca Canal, and its collection of buildings: the church of Santa Maria della Salute, (hence the area is also known as Punta della Salute), the Patriarchal Seminary of Venice, and Dogana da Mar at the triangle's tip.

Key takeaways

Punta della Dogana belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Punta della Dogana to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Punta della Dogana from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Punta della Dogana is an art museum in one of Venice's old customs buildings, the Dogana da Mar. It also refers to the triangular area of Venice where the Grand Canal meets the Giudecca Canal, and its collection of buildings: the church of Santa Maria della Salute, (hence the area is also known as Punta della Salute), the Patriarchal Seminary of Venice, and Dogana da Mar at the triangle's tip.

Geography and history

Punta della Dogana is located between the Grand and Giudecca Canals at the tip of an island in the Dorsoduro district. Adjacent to each other are the Dogana da Mar, Patriarchal Seminary, and Santa Maria della Salute. It is diagonal from the Piazza San Marco. The point was used for docking and customs as early as the beginning of the 15th century. The temporary structures built to store merchandise and customs workers were replaced by the Punta della Dogana, whose construction began in 1677.

Dogana da Mar The museum's art is housed in and around the Dogana da Mar building. It was built between 1678 and 1682 as a customs house by Giuseppe Benoni. The arcade styles reflect their construction in different eras. Atop the building are two statues of Atlas holding a golden globe upon which the figure of Fortune stands. The 17th-century statue turns in the wind. The group was built by Bernardo Falconi to represent the supremacy of the Republic of Venice. The last renovation of the building was done by Alvise Pigazzi in 1838.

Restoration The building was restored by Tadao Ando from January 2008 to March 2009, funded by François Pinault, a French billionaire and art collector. He signed a 33-year agreement with the city. The building had been empty for decades prior, with failed plans to turn it into apartments or a hotel. Dogana da Mar's stuccoed brick exterior was restored without additions, and is the only part of the original structure left intact. Cosmetic imperfections and the stucco were repaired, and bad areas were reinforced with stainless steel anchors, but areas with visible brick were left exposed. The interiors were left bare without surface treatment, and bricks were replaced sparingly. The room partitions from the last two centuries were replaced with parallel, rectangular halls. The roof was replaced by a similar roof with timber gables, with added skylights. The new floors are made of exposed and polished concrete, in some places covered with linoleum. Frank Peter Jäger called these smooth surfaces Ando's trademark, along with glass and steel fixtures that clash with the raw irregularities of the unfinished walls. He added that, for Ando, this combination "symbolizes the union of past, present, and future", the building, his architecture, and the art within it, respectively. Ando wanted to make the western entrance's face out of concrete slabs, but the change was opposed by the city. Exibart's Jacqueline Ceresoli described the building as having "industrial and minimalist soul" with red brick walls. The renovation cost was €20,000,000.

Exhibitions In June 2009, Punta della Dogana reopened to the public and since then has been presenting temporary exhibitions of the Pinault Collection:

Mapping the Studio: Artists from the François Pinault Collection, curated by Francesco Bonami and Alison Gingeras. Presented at Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi, June 2009 – April 2011 In Praise of Doubt, curated by Caroline Bourgeois, April 2011 – March 2013 Prima Materia, curated by Caroline Bourgeois and Michael Govan, May 2013 – February 2015 Slip of the Tongue, curated by Danh Vo in collaboration with Caroline Bourgeois, April 2015 – January 2016 Accrochage, curated by Caroline Bourgeois, April 2016 – November 2016 Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable. Damien Hirst, curated by Elena Geuna. Presented at Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi. April 2017 – December 2017 Dancing with Myself, curated by Martin Bethenod and Florian Ebner, April 2018 – December 2018 Luogo e Segni, curated by Mouna Mekouar and Martin Bethenod, March 2019 – December 2019 Untitled 2020. Three Perspectives on The Art of The Present, curated by Caroline Bourgeois, Muna El Fituri and Thomas Houseago, July - November 2020 Bruce Nauman: Contrapposto Studies, curated by Carlos Basualdo and Caroline Bourgeois, May 2021 - November 2022

Complex's Elisa Carmichael called Punta della Dogana's Prima Materia show of about 80 works from the Pinault Collection an "absolute must-see" outside of the 2013 Venice Biennale. Exibart's Jacqueline Ceresoli had similar praise for the show. François Pinault commissioned a statue for the tip of Punta della Dogana from Charles Ray upon receiving approval from the city to start the museum. Ray made an eight-foot-tall boy holding a frog by its leg intended as a public sculpture called Boy with Frog. The sculpture's permit was set to be negotiated four times annually. Boy with Frog was originally encased upon the museum's July 2009 opening after protests following its installation. The city moved in early 2013 to replace the statue with a reproduction of the streetlamp once situated there. Its spokesperson said that the sculpture's installation was designed to be temporary. Ray refused an offer to relocate the sculpture to Palazzo Grassi, opting to put the sculpture into storage. Independent curator Francesco Bonami wrote in La Stampa that the removal was "administrative cowardice" and the lamppost represented "cultural darkness".

See also List of buildings and structures in Venice

References

Bibliography

Jodidio, Philip (September 28, 2010). Tadao Ando Venice: The Pinault Collection at the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta Della Dogana. Skira Rizzoli. ISBN 9780847834105. Romanelli, Giandomenico; Hocquet, Jean Claude; Rossi, Paola (December 16, 2010). Dogana da Mar. Mondadori Electa.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Punta della Dogana

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Punta della Dogana claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Punta della Dogana before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Punta della Dogana ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Punta della Dogana

In research: Punta della Dogana appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Punta della Dogana in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Punta della Dogana is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2009 establishments in Italy, Art museums and galleries established in 2009, Art museums and galleries in Veneto, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Punta della Dogana outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Punta della Dogana in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Punta della Dogana means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Punta della Dogana out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Punta della Dogana in simple terms?

Why does Punta della Dogana matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Punta della Dogana?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Punta della Dogana.