Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Visual Arts
The sheer number of masterpieces packed into Venice might make you wonder if there's
something in the water here, but the reason may be more simple: historically, Venice tended
not to starve its artists. Multiyear commissions from wealthy private patrons, the city and
the Church gave them some sense of security. Artists were granted extraordinary opportun-
ities to create new artwork without interference, with the city frequently declining to en-
force the Inquisition's censorship edicts. Instead of dying young, destitute and out of fa-
vour, painters such as Titian and Giovanni Bellini survived into their 80s to produce late,
great works. The side-by-side innovations of emerging and mature artists created schools of
painting so distinct, they still set Venice apart from the rest of Italy - and the world.
Turbaned igures appear across Venice on the corners of Campo dei Mori, on jewels at Sigfrido Cipolato,
and propping up I Frari funerary monuments. Misleadingly referred to as 'Mori' (Moors), some represent
Venetians from Greek Morea, others Turkish pirates, and others enslaved West Africans who once rowed
merchant ships across the Mediterranean.
Early Venetian Painting
Once you've seen the mosaics at Basilica di San Marco and Santa Maria Assunta in Tor-
cello, you'll recognise key aspects of early Venetian painting: larger-than-life religious fig-
ures with wide eyes and serene expressions float on gold backgrounds and hover inches
above Gothic thrones. Byzantine influence can be seen in the Madonna and Child with Two
Votaries painted c 1325 by Paolo Veneziano (c 1300-62) in the Gallerie dell'Accademia:
like stage hands parting theatre curtains, two angels pull back the edges of a starry red
cloak to reveal a hulking Madonna, golden baby Jesus, and two tiny patrons.
By the early 15th century, Venetian painters were breaking with Byzantine convention.
Madonna with Child (c 1455) by Jacopo Bellini (c 1396-1470) in the Accademia is an im-
age any parent might relate to: bright-eyed baby Jesus reaches one sandalled foot over the
edge of the balcony, while an apparently sleep-deprived Mary patiently pulls him away
from the ledge. Padua's Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) took Renaissance perspective to
extremes, showing bystanders in his biblical scenes reacting to unfolding miracles and mar-
tyrdoms with shock, awe, anger, even inappropriate laughter.
Tuscan painter Gentile da Fabriano was in Venice as he was beginning his transition to
Renaissance realism, and apparently influenced the young Murano-born painter Antonio
Vivarini (c 1415-80), whose Passion polyptych in Ca' d'Oro shows tremendous pathos.
 
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