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Tag: Venice

Swiss Exhibit, 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale

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On March 26, 2019

In architecture

Swiss Pavilion, 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale

The Swiss pavilion won the Golden Lion national pavilion award for presenting “a compelling exhibition which was enjoyable while tackling the critical issues of scale in domestic space.”

The concept of the exhibition was to expose the ubiquitous white intteriors and familiar bland fixtures of contemporary architecture by playing with issues of scale.

The curators’ statement:

“The interior of housing is the most familiar of architectures. Perhaps for this reason, it is also a kind of terra incognita. Photographs of unfurnished flat interiors have only recently become commonplace in architectural media. If the increased prominence of unfurnished flat photographs seems strange, it is precisely because the performance of housing’s interior surface has historically been predicated on the ‘suppression’ of its image. By foregrounding the appearance of the architectural enclosure, the images imply a challenge to the tradition of the inconspicuous interior and anticipate an alternate architectural sensibility through which to reimagine housing’s interior shell. Svizzera 240 celebrates the promise of the unfurnished image by constructing its theatrical counterpart, the house tour, within the Swiss pavilion. On this tour, the plan’s promise of control over scale, organisation, and function, is undermined by the representational deficiencies of the image in an attempt to highlight the latent plasticity of the world’s most popular habitat.”

Printing Revolution, 1450-1500

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On February 19, 2019

In publishing

I received this catalogue of an exhibition at the Correr Museum in Venice from the amazing Scott Newstok of Rhodes College in Memphis, who always seems to be a step ahead of me on whatever I’m working on. The exhibition, curated by Cristina Dondi, runs through April 30.

The catalogue features a striking design by the Sebastiano Girardi Studio. It includes well-thought-out graphics and artwork on mostly black backgrounds, printed on Fedrigoni Sumbol Tatami White paper. I like the design, though it was impossible to tell from the cover and title page (above) whether the title was “Printing Revolution” or “Printing Evolution.” The design cleverly implies both and gives them seemingly equal weight. That’s great, but a potential problem for librarians, booksellers, and book shoppers.

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San Marco

The Harrowing of Hell Mosaic, Basilica San Marco, Venice

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On February 6, 2019

In art and illustration

The Harrowing of Hell, Basilica San Marco, Venice
Click through to Flickr and expand for a larger view.

This mosaic is one of four on the upper level of the basilica of San Marco (behind the loggia where the horses reside) flanking the main door to the plaza. From left to right facing the basilica, they depict the Deposition (entombment), the Harrowing, the Resurrection, and the Ascension of Christ.

The harrowing of Hell, also called the Descent into Limbo and the Anastasis, among other variants, took place between the crucifixion and the resurrection. Then Christ is said to have descended into the realm of the dead to reclaim the righteous and carry them to heaven.

By the early seventeenth century the original mosaics from the thirteenth century had badly deteriorated—the only remaining original mosaic is the one above the left portal, depicting the arrival of St. Mark’s body—and replacements were commissioned and executed in 1617-1618. The mosaic work was done by Luigi Gaetano based on cartoons by Maffeo Verona. The mosaics are made up of tesserae—small pieces of colored glass, stone,and enamel set in plaster.

The inscription appears to read “Ovis Fractis Portis Spoliat Me Campio Fortis” but I think the first letter is probably a Q and the V represents a U, as was formerly common. Then the Latin could be translated as something like “He who breaks down doors and carries me off is the mighty one.”

Location of the Harrowing of Hell mosaic on the Basilica San Marco facade.

Palazzo Trevisan, Murano, Venice

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On August 18, 2018

In architecture

Palazzo Trevisan, Murano, Venice

The crumbling Palazzo Trevisan is located on Fondamenta Andrea Navagero, opposite the Museum of Glass, in Murano. Overlook the neglect of its facade–which was once covered with frescoes by Prospero Bresciano–to appreciate what Richard Goy, in Venice: An Architectural Guide, calls “the most remarkable Renaissance palace on Murano.”

The palazzo was built from 1555–58 from a design by the humanist Daniele Barbaro, a patron of Palladio, who certainly inspired and might have participated in it. The lower two rows of windows look out from the ground floor. The piano nobile above features a stonework balcony in front of a large central window with a pediment cap (a Renaissance innovation). At top is a low attic signaled by small square windows.

The interior was once richly decorated and adorned with large paintings by Veronese and others, and the rear of the building opened onto a large garden. Little remains of this former grandeur.

San Giorgio and the Giudecca from Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice

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On August 14, 2018

In travel

San Giorgio and the Giudecca from Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice

The cupola of the Redentore is visible beyond San Giorgio Maggiore. The modest-looking piers in the foreground are used by the Marco Polo Boat Club.

GPS: 45.433732, 12.345992

Punta della Dogana, Venice

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On July 28, 2018

In history

Punta della Dogana at the Meeting of the Grand and Giudecca Canals, Venice

The Punta della Dogana at the meeting of the Grand and Giudecca Canals.

The Punta della Dogana is the pointy tip of the Dorsaduro where the Grand and Giudecca Canals meet. It is named for the dogana (Dogana di Mare), or customs house that operated here at least from the fourteenth century until well into the twentieth. The present dogana was constructed in 1682, not long after the neighboring Santa Maria della Salute (Saint Mary of Health), which was built in thanks for the passing of the plague in 1630.

Most visitors today, coming from the Santa Lucia train station, or the Piazzale Roma parking area, or the Marco Polo airport, enter the city from the rear. Until the mid-nineteenth century, when the first rail connection was built across the lagoon, the face of the city was on the opposite side, at San Marco. This was signaled to approaching vessels by the columns of San Marco and San Teodoro (more about them later). The Dogana lay directly across the Grand Canal, and as Venice was an empire built on trade it must have been a lively place indeed.

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A Section of the Grand Canal in the Dorsaduro Sestiero of Venice

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On July 25, 2018

In architecture, history, travel

A Section of the Grand Canal in the Dorsaduro Sestiero of Venice

The stretch of Venice’s Grand Canal between the Rialto Bridge and the Bacino includes some of the city’s finest buildings. Owners of these buildings invested great effort and funds into creating impressive facades facing the Canal.

The five buildings shown here — with the dome of the church of Santa Maria de la Salute and a tiny slice of the former Abbazia di San Gregorio in the background — are, left to right, Palazzo Genovese, Palazo Benzon, Palazzo Salviati, Palazzo Barbaro, and Palazzo Dario.

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Bridge of Sighs, Venice

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On July 23, 2018

In travel

Bridge of Sighs

Upon entry into the great city of Venice, every camera-toting visitor is required to sign a document committing them to taking a photo of the Bridge of Sigh (Ponte dei Sospiri). This is my entry from our latest visit.
P7081340.

Vegetable venders near the Ponte dei Pugni

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On April 8, 2018

In travel

Greengrocer near the Ponte dei Pugni, Venice

Greengrocer near the Ponte dei Pugni, Venice

So convenient to pop down to the canal and pick up a few fresh fruits and vegetables.

The nearby bridge is called the Ponte dei Pugni (Bridge of Fists) because until the early eighteenth century the rival Castelloni and Nicolotti clans would meet in the middle of the bridge for fisticuffs. The losers would be tossed over the side of the bridge into the canal.

The bridge spans the Rio di S. Barnaba in the sestiero of Dorsoduro. The Church of San Barnaba, which gives the canal its name, appeared in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where its Paladian facade was supposed to be that of a library where Jones’s father disappeared. The church was rebuilt several times. The present version, from the mid to late eighteenth century, is by Lorenzo Boschetti. Its campanile, however, is one of the oldest in Venice, probably dating from the twelfth century.

Grand Canal, Venice, looking south.

Ca’ Farsetti, Venice

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On February 10, 2018

In history, travel

East bank of the Grand Canal, looking south from the Rialto Bridge. The two buildings to the right of the yellow facade are the Ca' Corner Loredan and the Ca' Farsetti, both built in the the early 13th century (and later modified). These are the earliest major palazzi facing the Grand Canal.

East bank of the Grand Canal, looking south from the Rialto Bridge. The two buildings to the right of the yellow facade are the Ca’ Corner Loredan and the Ca’ Farsetti, both built in the the early 13th century (and later modified). These are the earliest major surviving palazzi facing the Grand Canal.

I have been researching the interesting history of Venice and the Veneto, and will be posting a few entries, mainly incorporating photos I’ve taken during visits there. (This one was taken 30 Oct. 2010.) The second building to the right of the yellow facade is the Ca’ Farsetti, a palazzo of historic importance.

Before 1200 the focus of life for most Venetians was the open campo outside each island compound’s church. However, as the city filled up, becoming one rather than many, the divisions between those compounds were blurred. The great open space of the Piazza San Marco became the city’s campo—a place for the citizens of a unified state to gather. In the same way, the Grand Canal became its central boulevard, filled with traffic of all kinds. Where the palaces of rich Venetians had previously faced their local campi, they now turned toward the Grand Canal. The wealthiest Venetians jostled for position along the waterway, each attempting to outdo the other in grandeur. The oldest surviving such palazzo is the Ca’ Farsetti, built by Ranieri Dandolo, the son of Doge Enrico Dandolo. This impressive Gothic structure near the Rialto Bridge is today used as Venice’s city hall…. Unlike family palaces in other Italian cities, the Venetian structures remained unfortified—a feature that speaks volumes about the lack of factionalism and lawlessness in the Republic of Venice.
—Thomas F. Madden, Venice: A New History

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Camel plaque, Palazzo Mastelli, Venice

The House of the Camel, Venice

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On January 11, 2018

In globalism, history, travel

Camel plaque, Palazzo Mastelli, Venice

Camel plaque, Palazzo Mastelli, Venice.

In the Canareggio sestiere of Venice, between the Jewish Ghetto and the Madonna dell’ Orto church, on the Calle dei Mori (the Street of the Moors), resides the Palazzo Mastelli. It is an venerable edifice, marked with a plaque depicting a camel laden with burdens. (Consequently, the palazzo is familiarly known as the House of the Camel.) The camel is an enduring symbol of the position of Venice as an entrepôt for trade between East and West.

The original meaning of the camel plaque seems to have been lost to legend, most of it xenophobic. According to legend, three brothers came to Venice from “Morea” (the Peloponnesian peninsula of Greece) in 1112. Or maybe, according to other accounts, they were from the Levant. Maybe they were Arabs. In any case, their names are always given as Rioba, Sandi, and Afani, and they were traders, wicked men who, one story has it, sought to sell cheap fabric to a Venetian lady at an exorbitant price. But the victim of the scam cursed the money, and the three men were turned into turbaned stone statues that stand near the palace in the Campo dei Mori.

Another variant of the story says that the unscrupulous merchant used his favorite phrase while peddling his cloth, “May my hand turn to stone if what I am saying is not true.” Unfortunately for him, his intended victim was an avatar of St. Mary Magdalene (or maybe she simply answered the woman’s prayer) and once again the brothers end up as stone figures.

Turbaned figure in exterior wall niche,Campo dei Mori, Venice.

Turbaned figure in exterior wall niche,Campo dei Mori, Venice.

On one of the statues, known as “Sior Rioba,” satirical poems and protests politicians and other powerful people were traditionally hung. In the nineteenth century Sior Rioba lost his nose, and in 2010 his head, although it was later found in the Calle della Racchetta and restored.

Legends endure, and Venetians and travel guides have enjoyed relating the story for centuries. (One version appears in Giuseppe Tassini’s Curiosità Veneziane, 1872.) But the bases of the statues are in fact parts from a Roman altar, and the statues were not constructed as a group but are a composite from various sources, put together in the fourteenth century.

The Palazzo Mastelli is a similar mélange, combining thirteenth-century Byzantine fragments with sixteenth-century construction, Roman fragments set in a column, and all of that topped with a Gothic balcony. All quite Venetian and, if you ask me, charming.

Palazzo Mastelli, the Fondamenta Madonna dell'Orto facade.

Palazzo Mastelli, the Fondamenta Madonna dell’Orto facade.

 

detail of Venice scene

Scena di Venezia

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On September 19, 2017

In art and illustration

Venice scene

Another image using the photo-to-line art technique I described in a previous post.

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