portego

plural portegos

1. A characteristic compositional element of the Venetian civil buildings built during the years of the Republic of Venice, similar to a reception hall but having peculiar features.

   Gilded console tables were set against the long, side walls of the portego.

   2002, Paula Weideger, Venetian Dreaming, New York, N.Y.: Washington Square Press, Atria Books, →ISBN, page 146

   2 more examples

   The arrangement of the middle windows is a transferring, as it were, of the mediæval portegos into the artistic conditions of the Renaissance.

   1895, [Theodor] Gsell-Fels, translated by J. Albert Swallow, Venice (Bruckmann’s Illustrated Guides; 2–5), Munich: A. Bruckmann, […], page 12

   In the portego of the second floor are the only two canal views by Canaletto on show in public galleries in Venice.

   1998, Jonathan Buckley, Hilary Robinson, The Rough Guide to Venice, Rough Guides, →ISBN, page 114