Restored in 1997 with funding from Young Friends of Save Venice, Boston Chapter.

In Campo San Giacometto near the Rialto Bridge, a statue of a bearded, naked man crouching on a pedestal seems to bear the weight of the steps that rise above his back, culminating in a stone podium: he is the so-called Gobbo di Rialto, the Hunchback of Rialto, sculpted in 1541 by Pietro da Salò.

From the podium of the sculpture, officials of the Venetian Republic once read announcements and proclamations, including the sentencing of criminals. Beside the Hunchback stands a granite column known as the Pietra del Bando, like its counterpart located in the Piazza San Marco, where such proclamations were often delivered simultaneously. A punishment frequently assigned to those who were convicted of minor charges was to run the gauntlet from the Pietra del Bando at San Marco to Rialto, where they had to kiss the statue of the hunchback.

The statue’s Roman counterpart, known as Pasquino, was considered to be a talking statue, and citizens would often leave denouncements or satirical critiques of the papacy and other authority figures with the sculpture. In the eighteenth century, Venetian writers composed humorous dialogues in which the Gobbo and Pasquino corresponded with one another.

Continuing the centuries-old tradition, this figure still lends his name to anonymous satires and comments that circulate in the Rialto neighborhood under his signature.

The statue, podium, and column were restored by conservator Anna Keller, with the guidance of project director Grazia Fumo of the Superintendency of Monuments of Venice.

For select projects, conservation dossiers in Italian containing limited textual and photographic documentation may be available for consultation by appointment at the Venice office of Save Venice and the Rosand Library & Study Center. For inquiries, please contact us at venice@savevenice.org.

Pietro Grazioli da Salò (active c. 1534–1560)
Il Gobbo di Rialto; Pietra del Bando Column
1541, Istrian stone, marble, and granite
Statue and podium: 150 cm tall
Column: 179 cm tall

Calabi, Donatella. The Market and the City: Square, Street and Architecture in Early Modern Europe. London: Routledge, 2017.