{"id":898,"date":"2023-01-23T12:05:57","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T12:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev1.kindlebit.com\/Development\/Venice\/?p=898"},"modified":"2023-12-26T09:20:03","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T09:20:03","slug":"art-in-venice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev1.kindlebit.com\/Development\/Venice\/art-in-venice\/","title":{"rendered":"Art in Venice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Art and Venice<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the middle ages, while the rest of Europe slumbered, the Republic of Venice flourished. Thanks to its protected location, seafaring and trade and the stability of the government.\u00a0 While other Medieval city states in Italy hid behind walls, this curious floating city already boasted a palace of government, an opulent Basilica, and a grand open square.<\/p>\n

From the beginning Venice was a city of art.\u00a0 The city itself looks like the dreamy subject for a canvas with the water of the canals constantly changing the light; colour and light is what Venice and it would become known for.\u00a0 Venetian Gothic<\/strong> is a heady mix of Classical and Byzantine styles that can be seen on the fa\u00e7ade of the Doge\u2019s Palace<\/strong> and in the decidedly eastern shape and look of St Mark\u2019s Basilica<\/strong>. Venetian glass makers, mosaic workers and artisans were sought after in Europe and this was before the Renaissance<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Venetian Oil Painting<\/strong><\/p>\n

Venetian art really took off in the 1470s when a Sicilian artist Antonello de Messina<\/strong> brought the technique of using oils from the Netherlands; oil painting<\/strong> was unknown in Italy at this time.\u00a0 He went to his friend Giovanni Bellini<\/strong> who had an established workshop in Venice, among his pupils were Giorgione<\/strong> (who died very young) and Titian<\/strong> (Tiziano Vecellio) who would become the most important and well-known Venetian painter.<\/p>\n

Venetian art was famous for its use of colour and light, with this new technique, artists could exploit the rough surface of a canvas with layers, colours could be blended together and the paint dried slowly.\u00a0 Pigments could be applied thinly with opaque or translucent glazes achieving a luminous effect that wasn\u2019t possible with tempera<\/em><\/strong> or fresco<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Oils gave art the subtlety of light and allowed a boldness and intensity of colour that Venice, a fusion of East and West, wholly embraced.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Venetian Masters<\/strong><\/p>\n

Venetian artists would use colour and light to bring drama, splendour and mystery to their work.\u00a0 For years Giovanni Bellini<\/strong> was the official painter to the rulers of Venice.<\/p>\n

Bellini\u2019s student Titian<\/strong> was a prodigy and he knew it!\u00a0 In his 20s he wrote to the authorities attempting to usurp Bellini\u2019s place and would become an extremely successful artist and businessman.\u00a0 He was particularly interested in the myths of the ancient world, Bacchus and winged cupids with a dreamlike quality, vibrant colour and flesh.\u00a0 Venice was entranced by his work and he replaced Bellini as the official court painter after his death.<\/p>\n

A fellow student, the mysterious Giorgione<\/strong>, from Castelfranco in Veneto briefly eclipsed Titian.\u00a0 This new rival was an enigma, for the first time in the art world, the subjects and meaning behind a piece of art wasn\u2019t clear. Not only did his work have a dreamlike quality; the ideas he presented and conventions he used weren’t clear.\u00a0 His work was daringly new because it didn’t make sense.\u00a0 We know very little of Giorgione and he died young, leaving a few pieces.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Miracle of St Mark<\/em> Tintoretto<\/p>\n

Jacopo Robusti<\/strong> was the son of a cloth dyer and so was familiar with creating colours; he became known as Tintoretto<\/strong> (little dyer).\u00a0 He studied briefly under Titian but there was clearly a falling out as Titian dismissed him and made life difficult for the young artist until he died; blocking commissions and guild membership.<\/p>\n

Although Venice was a city with ever changing light, it was also a city of shadows.\u00a0 Tintoretto brought an aspect of drama and mystery to Venetian painting with his juxtaposition of light and dark.\u00a0 He used the colouring of Titian but aspired to the muscular figures of Michelangelo, twisting with motion and tension. Tintoretto worked at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco<\/strong> for most of his life, but his most awe-inspiring work is the Paradise <\/em>in the great chamber of the Doge\u2019s Palace<\/strong>, it is the largest oil painting in the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Venice receives the homage of Hercules and Ceres<\/em>\u00a0by\u00a0Veronese<\/p>\n

A younger artist Paolo Caliari from Verona, made his debut in 1551, he was known as Veronese<\/strong>.\u00a0 His work was sumptuous and elegant, but was ordered and reflected traditional compositions.\u00a0 Veronese offered an alternative and the two artists would compete for commissions until Veronese\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Where to see Venetian Art<\/strong><\/p>\n

The work of these painters can be found all over Venice and further afield.\u00a0 The Gallerie dell’Accademia<\/strong> in the Dorsoduro district houses masterpieces from all of the Venetian greats including Giorgione\u2019s Tempest<\/em>, Titian\u2019s Virgin and Child<\/em> and the Presentation of the Virgin <\/em>and Paolo Veronese\u2019s<\/strong> Feast in the House of Levi.<\/em><\/p>\n

Many churches in Venice have masterpieces inside, far too many to mention here.\u00a0 In Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari<\/strong> where you will find Titian\u2019s triumphant Assumption of the Virgin<\/em> and his last painting the haunting Piet\u00e0<\/em>.\u00a0 In the church of Madonna dell\u2019Orto<\/strong> are Tintoretto\u2019s sumptuous Presentation of the Virgin<\/em>\u00a0and his visionary Last Judgement.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Scuola Grande di San Rocco<\/strong> in San Polo is mostly dominated by the work of Tintoretto<\/strong> who worked for the confraternity for forty years and produced over 70 paintings for them.\u00a0 Although alongside these there are also works by Titian, Giorgione and Veronese.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Birth of Liquid<\/em> Salvador Dali<\/p>\n

Aside from the masterpieces of Venetian court, more than five hundred years on, Venice is still at the forefront for cutting edge art.\u00a0 The Peggy Guggenheim Collection<\/strong> located in Dorsoduro is a must see for lovers of modern art and houses works by some of the most influential European and American artists of the 20th century including Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Salvador Dali and many more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Venice\u2019s Biennale<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every two years, since 1895, the city hosts \u2018La Biennale\u2019<\/em><\/strong> , an exhibition of the world\u2019s most important contemporary art.\u00a0 Effectively the Olympics of the art world, the event attracts artists, critics and art historians from around the world.\u00a0 The original idea for the Esposizione Biennale Artistica Nazionale<\/em> was to invite unknown Italian artists to compete to display their work, which was chosen by a panel of judges.\u00a0 The Giardini dei Biennale<\/em><\/strong> were created by Napoleon to house the artworks. Early entrants included Gustav Klimt, Auguste Renoir<\/strong> and Pablo Picasso<\/strong>,<\/p>\n

Owing to its success La Biennale opened to other European countries starting with Belgium in 1907.\u00a0 Today the Giardini<\/em> host 29 pavilions of different countries, some designed by famous architects such as Josef Hoffmann’s<\/strong> Austria Pavilion, Gerrit Thomas Rietveld’s<\/strong> Dutch pavilion or the Finnish pavilion, a pre-fabricated with a trapezoidal plan designed by Alvar Aalto<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Throughout the decades the Venice biennale<\/strong> has managed to anticipate new trends in the art world, presenting new work by international artists with renewed perspectives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Art and Venice During the middle ages, while the rest of Europe slumbered, the Republic of Venice flourished. Thanks to its protected location, seafaring and trade and the stability of the government.\u00a0 While other Medieval city states in Italy hid behind walls, this curious floating city already boasted a palace of government, an opulent Basilica,….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev1.kindlebit.com\/Development\/Venice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev1.kindlebit.com\/Development\/Venice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev1.kindlebit.com\/Development\/Venice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev1.kindlebit.com\/Development\/Venice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev1.kindlebit.com\/Development\/Venice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dev1.kindlebit.com\/Development\/Venice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1045,"href":"https:\/\/dev1.kindlebit.com\/Development\/Venice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions\/1045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev1.kindlebit.com\/Development\/Venice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev1.kindlebit.com\/Development\/Venice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev1.kindlebit.com\/Development\/Venice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev1.kindlebit.com\/Development\/Venice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}