Il Gobbo di Rialto, Venice

Il Gobbo di Rialto is a stone sculpture beside the old church of San Giacomo, made up of a kneeling figure and a column stump. The figure crouches beneath a short flight of steps; Pietro da Salò carved it in 1541. Officials once stood on those steps to proclaim laws and announce the names of people condemned to death, with the busy Rialto market carrying their words to a crowd.

The monument also marked the end of a brutal punishment: thieves and other lesser offenders were whipped from San Marco until they kissed the statue. So many condemned people did this that the stone began to wear away. In 1545, the ritual moved to a nearby cross bearing Saint Mark’s lion; marks from it remain cut into the pillar. A Latin inscription records a public restoration in 1836, and an iron railing now encloses the sculpture.