Scala dei Giganti

A topographical cabinet card showing a view of the Giant's Stairway (Italian: Scala dei Giganti) in the courtyard of the Doge's Palace in Venice. Since 1567 the staircase has been guarded by Sansovino's two colossal statues of Mars and Neptune, representing the city's power by land and by sea.

Photographed by Carlo Ponti of Venice.

Ponti studied photography in Paris in the 1840s. In 1852, he obtained a license to produce and sell photographs in Venice. He ran the first of the big photographic businesses in the city, producing albums with architectural views of great artistic sensitivity. He was also the inventor of camera lenses suitable for panoramic photography.