Married: 11 October 1667, Laura Cornaro (F-30)

Died: 12 August 1722, Venice

DOGE GIOVANNI CORNARO, in the S. Polo line of his family's Cornaro della Regina branch, was elected 22 May 1709 as the fourth and last Doge of the Cornaro family. Both his grandfather Doge Francesco Cornaro (G-19) and great-grandfather Doge Giovanni Cornaro (G-12) had preceded him in the office.

Giovanni was elected Senator, 1683, and Podestà [governor] at Brescia, 1691. In his long career he served as a member of the Council of Ten and held numerous other offices. Characterized as "a man of low profile and political harmlessness," he was elected Doge in a compromise move following a deadlock between the Diedo and Pisani parties.

Unfortunately, his reign occurred during the period when the implications of Venice's long military and political decline were becoming manifest. One of the most agonizing of the many adverse events of his tenure was the loss of Morea to the Turks.

The painting of Doge Giovanni Cornaro on this page, created by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo for the Cornaro palace in Campo S. Polo, is now displayed in the Egidio Martini Collection at the Museo Ca' Rezzonico in Venice.