Venice: The Meeting of East and West - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 90

Figure 6.6. St. Mark's Square
Artists have long been captivated by Venice and the interplay among its sunlight, its
water, and its buildings. J. W. Turner captured Venice at its most mystical. The Impression-
ist painter Renoir and generations of water colorists also worked at transforming Venetian
three dimensions into two. But the master painter of St. Mark's Square is Giovanni Anto-
nio Canaletto (1697-1768). His perspectives are superb, and the details in his paintings are
astonishingly faithful. His views of St. Mark's Square are no mere camera snapshots; they
are composed and altered by the artist's eye. As one admirer writes, with Canaletto, every
carefully detailed brick bursts with sunlight.
The square is punctuated by vertical structures. The Campanile (Bell Tower) is 325
feet high. Its spire is topped with a golden weathervane, visible in the sunlight from far out
at sea. From its observation galley, The Logetta , the viewer sweeps in scenes of the city,
the lagoon, and the Adriatic Sea beyond. The Campanile collapsed into rubble on July 14,
1902. The tower was faithfully rebuilt, except for the ramp that granted horse and rider an
aristocratic ascent to the top. Today's visitor must make do with squeezing into a crowded
elevator.
In the piazzetta , two tall granite columns stand at what was once the seaside entrance
to the city. One carries a statue of St. Theodore; the other is a platform for the winged lion
of St. Mark. The space between the columns was used for public executions until the eight-