Venice - Italy - page 314

is above the seat that would have been occupied by the Doge during sessions of
the Council. Above you, on the ceiling, is Veronese's The Triumph of Venice.
At the far end of the hall, you'll next see a long frieze of portraits of the Republic's
first 76 doges. Look carefully, and you'll spot one faceless portrait—a black veil
covers the face of Doge Marin Falier, who was executed for treason against the state
and consequently dishonored by having his image removed. The portraits, which
continue in the adjoining Sala dello Scrutinio, are also by Domenico Tintoretto.
Now head back through the Greta Council Hall and follow the signs pointing
you in the direction of the prisons. When you come upon a series of air-conditioned
rooms, pause to consider the works of Hieronymus Bosch in The Chamber of the
Magistrato alle Leggi, where legal regulations were considered and decided by a
special council. Bosch's depiction of Hell is particularly spooky, while his idea of
Heaven includes a tunnel of white light often reported by those who claim to have
died and returned to life. Equally exciting is Enrico van Bles detto il Civetta's Hell,
which contains all manner of bizarre and torturous imagery.
Having thus had a sense of the spaces in which Venice's government authori-
ties operated, you can now try to imagine yourself a condemned prisoner by cross-
ing the Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs). This is where convicts on their way
to the prisons said farewell to freedom and headed to lengthy internment or exe-
cution. At some point, you may feel lost in a tangle of prisons and passages (it's
something of a mazelike complex), but simply follow the arrows and you'll even-
tually reach the Sala dei Censori (Chamber of Censors), where the city's small
council of moral consultants met. On your way out, there's a small souvenir store,
and an overpriced coffee shop.
Also worth visiting around St. Mark's Square: Rooms of the Museo Civico
Correr (in the Procuratie Nuove's Ala Napoleonica, Piazza San Marco; % 041-

2405211; € 9 adults, € 7 reduced, free with San Marco Museum ticket; Apr-Oct
10am-7pm, Nov-Mar 10am-5pm) display a broad array of art and memorabilia
related to the culture of Venice. Starting with the androgynous angels of the neo-
classical sculptor Antonia Canova, the tour goes into 20 rooms of historical items
like coins, rare manuscripts, furniture, busts, paintings, and early maps of the city
(just in case you thought getting around Venice is difficult today), always high-
lighting the line of doges as key figures in the city's proud history.
A highlight of the tour is the air-conditioned Quadreria picture gallery

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on the second floor. Though not in the same league as the Accademia (p. 321), it
provides a useful understanding of how Venetian painting developed through
Byzantine, Gothic, and Renaissance periods. Among the standout paintings is the
so-called “Mannerist” work of Cosmé Tura, a Pietà (done around 1460), in which
Christ is represented as an old man. Mannerism emerged as a counter-reaction to
the careful balance and proportion of the High Renaissance; artists sought to
deliberately distort physical proportions and use irrational space to generate an
emotional effect. Although the movement is more directly associated with Rome,
Florence, and Mantua, the artists of Venice also pursued their own Mannerist
course, and this is evidenced in the distinctive styles of Titian, Jacopo, Tintoretto,
and visiting Greek artist Domenikos Theotokopoulos, known as El Greco. The
latter is the most famous of the Greek artists who trained in Venice (their works
are in Room 41). Note the exaggerated Mannerism of his Last Supper (1641),
which attempts to suggest religious tension.