Review of Maria Bergamo, Alessandro, il cavaliere, il doge. Le placchette profane della Pala d’Or... more Review of Maria Bergamo, Alessandro, il cavaliere, il doge. Le placchette profane della Pala d’Oro di San Marco, collana Venetia / Venezia 11 (L’Erma di Bretschneider, Rome 2022), in Engramma 174 (Dec. 2022)
Venetia 1600. Births and Rebirths, ed. Robert Echols, Frederick Ilchman, Gabriele Matino, Andrea Bellieni, Milan: Consorzio Museum Musei, 2021, 32-40. , 2021
Also published in Italian: “La città eletta,” in Venetia 1600: Nascite e Rinascite, ed. Robert Ec... more Also published in Italian: “La città eletta,” in Venetia 1600: Nascite e Rinascite, ed. Robert Echols, Frederick Ilchman, Gabriele Matino, Andrea Bellieni, Milan: Consorzio Museum Musei, 2021, 32-40.
A true story of vendetta and intrigue, triumph and tragedy, exile and repatriation, this book rec... more A true story of vendetta and intrigue, triumph and tragedy, exile and repatriation, this book recounts the interwoven microhistories of Count Girolamo Della Torre, a feudal lord with a castle and other properties in the Friuli, and Giulia Bembo, grand-niece of Cardinal Pietro Bembo and daughter of Gian Matteo Bembo, a powerful Venetian senator with a distinguished career in service to the Venetian Republic. Their marriage in the mid-sixteenth century might be regarded as emblematic of the Venetian experience, with the metropole at the center of a fragmented empire: a Terraferma nobleman and the daughter of a Venetian senator, who raised their family in far off Crete in the stato da mar, in Venice itself, and in the Friuli and the Veneto in the stato da terra. The fortunes and misfortunes of the nine surviving Della Torre children and their descendants, tracked through the end of the Republic in 1797, are likewise emblematic of a change in feudal culture from clan solidarity to individualism and intrafamily strife, and ultimately, redemption.
Despite the efforts by both the Della Torre and the Bembo families to preserve the patrimony through a succession of male heirs, the last survivor in the paternal bloodline of each was a daughter. This epic tale highlights the role of women in creating family networks and opens a precious window into a contentious period in which Venetian republican values clash with the deeply rooted feudal traditions of honor and blood feuds of the mainland.
This book offers an engaging and original perspective on the private lives and material culture o... more This book offers an engaging and original perspective on the private lives and material culture of patrician families in sixteenth-century Venice. Distinguished art historian Patricia Fortini Brown takes us behind the elegant façades of grand palaces built along the Venetian canals and examines the roles of both fine and applied arts in family life as well as the public messages that these impressive homes conveyed. Illustrated with hundreds of varied and unusual images, the book provides a lively picture of the aristocratic lifestyle during a period of changing definitions of nobility. The author considers such wide-ranging themes as attitudes toward wealth and display, the articulation of family identity, and the visual culture of Venetian women—how they decorated their homes, dressed, undertook domestic tasks, entertained, and raised their children. Recapturing the interplay between the public and private, she offers an account of Venetian households unequalled in vividness and detail.
Through close examination of Renaissance paintings, drawings, book illustrations, and other art w... more Through close examination of Renaissance paintings, drawings, book illustrations, and other art works, Patricia Fortini Brown brings fourteenth and fifteenth century Venice alive. She explores the role of the guilds and the nobility, the unique island setting, the environment of the church and the private home, the political rivalries with other states, the taste for symbols and metaphors, the myriad qualities that made Venice distinct and its art unique. Carefully interweaving art-historical analysis of individual works (both famous and little-known) with rich contextual discussions, she reveals a culture of high beauty, artifice, and craftsmanship.
From Library Journal
Unlike the other great centers of Italian Renaissance art, Venice had no con... more From Library Journal Unlike the other great centers of Italian Renaissance art, Venice had no connection with ancient Rome; its site was not inhabited until after the fall of the empire. Brown (art and archaeology, Princeton) here argues that because of this lack of a Roman connection, Venetians devised a history for their city, creating a genealogy that they found acceptable. To support this formulation, Venice is examined during its Golden Age (the 13th to 16th centuries) through its arts, crafts, and literature to explore the "evolution of a Venetian view of time, of history and of historical change." Brown is painstaking in her research, using many translations of primary sources from the period. She includes 42 pages of notes and a 15-page bibliography (in small print). Though her writing style may strike the average reader as pedantic, specialists will find this a useful source
From Library Journal
This well-illustrated inquiry examines individually and contextually the "ey... more From Library Journal This well-illustrated inquiry examines individually and contextually the "eyewitness" paintings executed in Venice, ca. 1470-1530. Hung in government council chambers and religious lodges, these popular works depicted civic, diplomatic, and pious events of the day in a detailed but lyrical manner unique to the period. Their appeal derived from their surface beauty, lifelike portrayals, and inventive form as well as from their expression of contemporary social, cultural, and aesthetic values. Brown reconstructs the socio-political climate and visual culture that fostered these works, also offering a catalog of pre-1534 narrative painting cycles
Journal of The Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 1981
... Relying on the computations of a Hamburg astronomer, he concluded in an article in 1911 that ... more ... Relying on the computations of a Hamburg astronomer, he concluded in an article in 1911 that the fresco must commemor-ate the consecration of the high altar of San Lorenzo on 9 July 1422, the date cited in an eighteenth-century pilgrim's guide.2 When Warburg's study ...
Bernhard Degenhart and Annegrit Schmitt, Corpus der italienischen Zeichnungen, 1300-1450: Venedig... more Bernhard Degenhart and Annegrit Schmitt, Corpus der italienischen Zeichnungen, 1300-1450: Venedig, Jacopo Bellini. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1990. Part 2, vol. 5 (text): 266 pp.; 301 black-and-white illus. Part 2, vol. 6 (catalogue): 307 pp.; 8 color illus., 226 black-and-white. Part 2, vol. 7 (plates-Paris): 199 black-and-white illus. Part 2, vol. 8 (plates-London): 199 black-and-white illus. DM 1,380.00
<p>Giovanni da Udine returns to his native city after the Sack of Rome and participates in ... more <p>Giovanni da Udine returns to his native city after the Sack of Rome and participates in a campaign of urban renewal. The Della Torre brothers engage in protracted litigation to receive financial restitution from the Savorgnan heirs, during which time Raimondo dies. The three surviving brothers also petition for entrance into the hereditary Venetian nobility, a rare distinction held by the Savorgnan, but are rejected. The rebuff is lessened in 1533 when the brothers are named <italic>cavalieri aureati</italic>—Knights of the Golden Spur—by the Emperor Charles V, just two weeks after he granted the same honour to Titian (Tiziano Vecellio). Girolamo, now head of the family, takes the lead in rebuilding Palazzo Torriani. Alvise II attends to family affairs at Villalta. Michele becomes a favourite of Pope Paul III, thus creating lasting links with the powerful Farnese family, and rises in the hierarchy of the church in Rome.</p>
The city of Udine begins to heal, the castle of Villalta is rebuilt, and the six Della Torre chil... more The city of Udine begins to heal, the castle of Villalta is rebuilt, and the six Della Torre children come of age. Two sons become soldiers, and three others, including Girolamo, enter the church. Ginevra, the only daughter, marries a Colloredo from another feudal family hostile to the Savorgnan and begins raising a family that would continue the vendetta. Reprisals for the 1511 massacre continue, with periodic outbursts of revenge punctuating a time of relative calm. The year of 1527 is a grim turning point, with famine in the Friuli, the Sack of Rome, and the death of Giovanni, one of the Della Torre soldier brothers. After studying law in Bologna and challenging an exiled Venetian noble to a duel, Girolamo—although a cleric—is granted a licence to carry arms in Venetian territories.
This final chapter follows the Della Torre bloodline through the eighteenth century. Giovanni pur... more This final chapter follows the Della Torre bloodline through the eighteenth century. Giovanni pursues has a successful career as Bishop of Veglia. Giulio marries Antonio Marchesi’s daughter Caterina in 1600, establishing the Udine line, and the family regains ownership of Palazzo Torriani. Sigismondo, head of the Gorizian line, dies the following year. The vast patrimony of both lines flows to his great-grandson, Carlo II, by right of primogeniture. Carlo’s grandson, Lucio Antonio, becomes heir to a toxic heritage of violence and entitlement and commits a litany of atrocities. Venice banishes him in 1717 and orders Palazzo Torriani to be razed to the ground. He is executed in 1723 for conspiring to murder his wife. His son, Lucio Sigismondo, recoups much of the patrimony and purchases a new Palazzo Torriani in Udine. Compiling extensive genealogies and organizing archival documents, he rewrites the family narrative and restores the good name of the Della Torre.
A true story of vendetta and intrigue, triumph and tragedy, exile and repatriation in early moder... more A true story of vendetta and intrigue, triumph and tragedy, exile and repatriation in early modern Venice, this book focuses on the marriage between the feudal lord Count Girolamo Della Torre and Giulia Bembo, daughter of a powerful Venetian senator and grand-niece of Cardinal Pietro Bembo. Exiled to Crete for pursuing vendetta to avenge the murder of his father, Girolamo marries Giulia with the aim of enlisting her father as a powerful ally. Thus begins a challenging itinerary that leads from the Mediterranean back to Venice and its mainland territories in the Veneto and the Patria del Friuli. It plays out against a backdrop of the birth of ten children, the Council of Trent, papal and imperial politics, the rise of Girolamo’s brother Michele to the cardinalate, the Ottoman threat, and the golden age of Venetian art. Once a pawn in a marital strategy that failed, Giulia is celebrated after her death with the first independent biography of an ordinary woman published in Italy. The f...
Michele is elected Bishop of Ceneda in 1547 and is dispatched as papal envoy to the King of Franc... more Michele is elected Bishop of Ceneda in 1547 and is dispatched as papal envoy to the King of France. Girolamo, serving as Michele’s procurator, writes Titian a letter of introduction to Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo, Bishop of Trent. A surviving portrait of Girolamo, possibly by Paris Bordone, may date to this period. Girolamo’s fortunes change in the winter of 1549: he is exiled to Crete for ten years for engaging in a sword fight with a Savorgnan contingent in Padua, killing two and wounding others. On the eve of Girolamo’s departure, his brother Alvise II and brother-in-law Giambattista Colloredo are assassinated on the Grand Canal by Tristan Savorgnan, seeking to avenge the insult to his family. Girolamo’s departure is postponed and Alvise II is interred in a tomb in the Frari. Girolamo determines to seek a marital alliance that would benefit him politically and allow him to perpetuate the family bloodline.
Girolamo and Giulia sail to Crete, their voyage reimagined from accounts of similar trips in that... more Girolamo and Giulia sail to Crete, their voyage reimagined from accounts of similar trips in that period. After avoiding attacks from corsairs, they arrive safely in the port of Candia, only to find half-finished city walls and many buildings partially in ruin from a recent earthquake. They soon obtain rental housing and insert themselves into a community of Latins and Greeks. Giulia gives birth to their first child, Lodovico, who dies two weeks later. A healthy second son, Sigismondo, is born, albeit with difficulties. With the Della Torre line now assured, the couple move within a complicated social hierarchy of elites and settle into the rhythms of colonial life. Girolamo collects rents for a Farnese cardinal and is granted permission to carry arms for his defence. The search for his brother’s assassins continues back in Italy, and Bishop Michele becomes a leading figure at the Council of Trent.
Girolamo marries off all five daughters to Friulian nobles—three to feudal lords, two to wealthy ... more Girolamo marries off all five daughters to Friulian nobles—three to feudal lords, two to wealthy city dwellers—thus strengthening the family network of alliances. Alvise and Giovanni become priests, the latter destined to follow his uncle Michele into high church office. Girolamo’s oldest son, Sigismondo, seeks his fortune in service of the Hapsburgs. His first marriage brings him the feud of Spessa, complete with castle, in Gorizia, and a son and heir, Carlo, named after the archduke. A second marriage into a collateral Della Torre line based in imperial territory ties him ever more firmly to the Hapsburgs. Girolamo expands the castle at Villalta, grafting a seigneurial Renaissance country villa onto the medieval fortress, the complex becoming a metaphor for a feudal family that now embraces Venetian republican values. Michele is featured in Paolo Paruta’s Della perfezione della vita politica (1579), a treatise celebrating politics as civil discipline.
Review of Maria Bergamo, Alessandro, il cavaliere, il doge. Le placchette profane della Pala d’Or... more Review of Maria Bergamo, Alessandro, il cavaliere, il doge. Le placchette profane della Pala d’Oro di San Marco, collana Venetia / Venezia 11 (L’Erma di Bretschneider, Rome 2022), in Engramma 174 (Dec. 2022)
Venetia 1600. Births and Rebirths, ed. Robert Echols, Frederick Ilchman, Gabriele Matino, Andrea Bellieni, Milan: Consorzio Museum Musei, 2021, 32-40. , 2021
Also published in Italian: “La città eletta,” in Venetia 1600: Nascite e Rinascite, ed. Robert Ec... more Also published in Italian: “La città eletta,” in Venetia 1600: Nascite e Rinascite, ed. Robert Echols, Frederick Ilchman, Gabriele Matino, Andrea Bellieni, Milan: Consorzio Museum Musei, 2021, 32-40.
A true story of vendetta and intrigue, triumph and tragedy, exile and repatriation, this book rec... more A true story of vendetta and intrigue, triumph and tragedy, exile and repatriation, this book recounts the interwoven microhistories of Count Girolamo Della Torre, a feudal lord with a castle and other properties in the Friuli, and Giulia Bembo, grand-niece of Cardinal Pietro Bembo and daughter of Gian Matteo Bembo, a powerful Venetian senator with a distinguished career in service to the Venetian Republic. Their marriage in the mid-sixteenth century might be regarded as emblematic of the Venetian experience, with the metropole at the center of a fragmented empire: a Terraferma nobleman and the daughter of a Venetian senator, who raised their family in far off Crete in the stato da mar, in Venice itself, and in the Friuli and the Veneto in the stato da terra. The fortunes and misfortunes of the nine surviving Della Torre children and their descendants, tracked through the end of the Republic in 1797, are likewise emblematic of a change in feudal culture from clan solidarity to individualism and intrafamily strife, and ultimately, redemption.
Despite the efforts by both the Della Torre and the Bembo families to preserve the patrimony through a succession of male heirs, the last survivor in the paternal bloodline of each was a daughter. This epic tale highlights the role of women in creating family networks and opens a precious window into a contentious period in which Venetian republican values clash with the deeply rooted feudal traditions of honor and blood feuds of the mainland.
This book offers an engaging and original perspective on the private lives and material culture o... more This book offers an engaging and original perspective on the private lives and material culture of patrician families in sixteenth-century Venice. Distinguished art historian Patricia Fortini Brown takes us behind the elegant façades of grand palaces built along the Venetian canals and examines the roles of both fine and applied arts in family life as well as the public messages that these impressive homes conveyed. Illustrated with hundreds of varied and unusual images, the book provides a lively picture of the aristocratic lifestyle during a period of changing definitions of nobility. The author considers such wide-ranging themes as attitudes toward wealth and display, the articulation of family identity, and the visual culture of Venetian women—how they decorated their homes, dressed, undertook domestic tasks, entertained, and raised their children. Recapturing the interplay between the public and private, she offers an account of Venetian households unequalled in vividness and detail.
Through close examination of Renaissance paintings, drawings, book illustrations, and other art w... more Through close examination of Renaissance paintings, drawings, book illustrations, and other art works, Patricia Fortini Brown brings fourteenth and fifteenth century Venice alive. She explores the role of the guilds and the nobility, the unique island setting, the environment of the church and the private home, the political rivalries with other states, the taste for symbols and metaphors, the myriad qualities that made Venice distinct and its art unique. Carefully interweaving art-historical analysis of individual works (both famous and little-known) with rich contextual discussions, she reveals a culture of high beauty, artifice, and craftsmanship.
From Library Journal
Unlike the other great centers of Italian Renaissance art, Venice had no con... more From Library Journal Unlike the other great centers of Italian Renaissance art, Venice had no connection with ancient Rome; its site was not inhabited until after the fall of the empire. Brown (art and archaeology, Princeton) here argues that because of this lack of a Roman connection, Venetians devised a history for their city, creating a genealogy that they found acceptable. To support this formulation, Venice is examined during its Golden Age (the 13th to 16th centuries) through its arts, crafts, and literature to explore the "evolution of a Venetian view of time, of history and of historical change." Brown is painstaking in her research, using many translations of primary sources from the period. She includes 42 pages of notes and a 15-page bibliography (in small print). Though her writing style may strike the average reader as pedantic, specialists will find this a useful source
From Library Journal
This well-illustrated inquiry examines individually and contextually the "ey... more From Library Journal This well-illustrated inquiry examines individually and contextually the "eyewitness" paintings executed in Venice, ca. 1470-1530. Hung in government council chambers and religious lodges, these popular works depicted civic, diplomatic, and pious events of the day in a detailed but lyrical manner unique to the period. Their appeal derived from their surface beauty, lifelike portrayals, and inventive form as well as from their expression of contemporary social, cultural, and aesthetic values. Brown reconstructs the socio-political climate and visual culture that fostered these works, also offering a catalog of pre-1534 narrative painting cycles
Journal of The Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 1981
... Relying on the computations of a Hamburg astronomer, he concluded in an article in 1911 that ... more ... Relying on the computations of a Hamburg astronomer, he concluded in an article in 1911 that the fresco must commemor-ate the consecration of the high altar of San Lorenzo on 9 July 1422, the date cited in an eighteenth-century pilgrim&amp;amp;#x27;s guide.2 When Warburg&amp;amp;#x27;s study ...
Bernhard Degenhart and Annegrit Schmitt, Corpus der italienischen Zeichnungen, 1300-1450: Venedig... more Bernhard Degenhart and Annegrit Schmitt, Corpus der italienischen Zeichnungen, 1300-1450: Venedig, Jacopo Bellini. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1990. Part 2, vol. 5 (text): 266 pp.; 301 black-and-white illus. Part 2, vol. 6 (catalogue): 307 pp.; 8 color illus., 226 black-and-white. Part 2, vol. 7 (plates-Paris): 199 black-and-white illus. Part 2, vol. 8 (plates-London): 199 black-and-white illus. DM 1,380.00
<p>Giovanni da Udine returns to his native city after the Sack of Rome and participates in ... more <p>Giovanni da Udine returns to his native city after the Sack of Rome and participates in a campaign of urban renewal. The Della Torre brothers engage in protracted litigation to receive financial restitution from the Savorgnan heirs, during which time Raimondo dies. The three surviving brothers also petition for entrance into the hereditary Venetian nobility, a rare distinction held by the Savorgnan, but are rejected. The rebuff is lessened in 1533 when the brothers are named <italic>cavalieri aureati</italic>—Knights of the Golden Spur—by the Emperor Charles V, just two weeks after he granted the same honour to Titian (Tiziano Vecellio). Girolamo, now head of the family, takes the lead in rebuilding Palazzo Torriani. Alvise II attends to family affairs at Villalta. Michele becomes a favourite of Pope Paul III, thus creating lasting links with the powerful Farnese family, and rises in the hierarchy of the church in Rome.</p>
The city of Udine begins to heal, the castle of Villalta is rebuilt, and the six Della Torre chil... more The city of Udine begins to heal, the castle of Villalta is rebuilt, and the six Della Torre children come of age. Two sons become soldiers, and three others, including Girolamo, enter the church. Ginevra, the only daughter, marries a Colloredo from another feudal family hostile to the Savorgnan and begins raising a family that would continue the vendetta. Reprisals for the 1511 massacre continue, with periodic outbursts of revenge punctuating a time of relative calm. The year of 1527 is a grim turning point, with famine in the Friuli, the Sack of Rome, and the death of Giovanni, one of the Della Torre soldier brothers. After studying law in Bologna and challenging an exiled Venetian noble to a duel, Girolamo—although a cleric—is granted a licence to carry arms in Venetian territories.
This final chapter follows the Della Torre bloodline through the eighteenth century. Giovanni pur... more This final chapter follows the Della Torre bloodline through the eighteenth century. Giovanni pursues has a successful career as Bishop of Veglia. Giulio marries Antonio Marchesi’s daughter Caterina in 1600, establishing the Udine line, and the family regains ownership of Palazzo Torriani. Sigismondo, head of the Gorizian line, dies the following year. The vast patrimony of both lines flows to his great-grandson, Carlo II, by right of primogeniture. Carlo’s grandson, Lucio Antonio, becomes heir to a toxic heritage of violence and entitlement and commits a litany of atrocities. Venice banishes him in 1717 and orders Palazzo Torriani to be razed to the ground. He is executed in 1723 for conspiring to murder his wife. His son, Lucio Sigismondo, recoups much of the patrimony and purchases a new Palazzo Torriani in Udine. Compiling extensive genealogies and organizing archival documents, he rewrites the family narrative and restores the good name of the Della Torre.
A true story of vendetta and intrigue, triumph and tragedy, exile and repatriation in early moder... more A true story of vendetta and intrigue, triumph and tragedy, exile and repatriation in early modern Venice, this book focuses on the marriage between the feudal lord Count Girolamo Della Torre and Giulia Bembo, daughter of a powerful Venetian senator and grand-niece of Cardinal Pietro Bembo. Exiled to Crete for pursuing vendetta to avenge the murder of his father, Girolamo marries Giulia with the aim of enlisting her father as a powerful ally. Thus begins a challenging itinerary that leads from the Mediterranean back to Venice and its mainland territories in the Veneto and the Patria del Friuli. It plays out against a backdrop of the birth of ten children, the Council of Trent, papal and imperial politics, the rise of Girolamo’s brother Michele to the cardinalate, the Ottoman threat, and the golden age of Venetian art. Once a pawn in a marital strategy that failed, Giulia is celebrated after her death with the first independent biography of an ordinary woman published in Italy. The f...
Michele is elected Bishop of Ceneda in 1547 and is dispatched as papal envoy to the King of Franc... more Michele is elected Bishop of Ceneda in 1547 and is dispatched as papal envoy to the King of France. Girolamo, serving as Michele’s procurator, writes Titian a letter of introduction to Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo, Bishop of Trent. A surviving portrait of Girolamo, possibly by Paris Bordone, may date to this period. Girolamo’s fortunes change in the winter of 1549: he is exiled to Crete for ten years for engaging in a sword fight with a Savorgnan contingent in Padua, killing two and wounding others. On the eve of Girolamo’s departure, his brother Alvise II and brother-in-law Giambattista Colloredo are assassinated on the Grand Canal by Tristan Savorgnan, seeking to avenge the insult to his family. Girolamo’s departure is postponed and Alvise II is interred in a tomb in the Frari. Girolamo determines to seek a marital alliance that would benefit him politically and allow him to perpetuate the family bloodline.
Girolamo and Giulia sail to Crete, their voyage reimagined from accounts of similar trips in that... more Girolamo and Giulia sail to Crete, their voyage reimagined from accounts of similar trips in that period. After avoiding attacks from corsairs, they arrive safely in the port of Candia, only to find half-finished city walls and many buildings partially in ruin from a recent earthquake. They soon obtain rental housing and insert themselves into a community of Latins and Greeks. Giulia gives birth to their first child, Lodovico, who dies two weeks later. A healthy second son, Sigismondo, is born, albeit with difficulties. With the Della Torre line now assured, the couple move within a complicated social hierarchy of elites and settle into the rhythms of colonial life. Girolamo collects rents for a Farnese cardinal and is granted permission to carry arms for his defence. The search for his brother’s assassins continues back in Italy, and Bishop Michele becomes a leading figure at the Council of Trent.
Girolamo marries off all five daughters to Friulian nobles—three to feudal lords, two to wealthy ... more Girolamo marries off all five daughters to Friulian nobles—three to feudal lords, two to wealthy city dwellers—thus strengthening the family network of alliances. Alvise and Giovanni become priests, the latter destined to follow his uncle Michele into high church office. Girolamo’s oldest son, Sigismondo, seeks his fortune in service of the Hapsburgs. His first marriage brings him the feud of Spessa, complete with castle, in Gorizia, and a son and heir, Carlo, named after the archduke. A second marriage into a collateral Della Torre line based in imperial territory ties him ever more firmly to the Hapsburgs. Girolamo expands the castle at Villalta, grafting a seigneurial Renaissance country villa onto the medieval fortress, the complex becoming a metaphor for a feudal family that now embraces Venetian republican values. Michele is featured in Paolo Paruta’s Della perfezione della vita politica (1579), a treatise celebrating politics as civil discipline.
In 1587 Girolamo sells Palazzo Torriani to Antonio Marchesi, a rich merchant, to satisfy some of ... more In 1587 Girolamo sells Palazzo Torriani to Antonio Marchesi, a rich merchant, to satisfy some of the creditors. Marchesi, who has noble aspirations, embellishes the palace with luxurious furnishings, including a ceiling painting by the workshop of Paolo Veronese, and builds new structures on the site. Girolamo ties up loose ends. He verifies the family’s titles and investitures and puts his financial house in order. Mindful of the litigation over Gian Matteo’s estate, he executes a notarized document, dividing his property, and his debts, equally between his three surviving sons, Sigismondo, Giulio, and Giovanni, ‘so that everyone would know his share’. Girolamo’s brother-in-law Pietro Bembo, Bishop of Veglia, dies in 1589. The pope gives the office to Girolamo’s son Giovanni over Venetian objections. Girolamo drafts his testament, reaffirming the property division of 1587. He dies in Venice in March 1590 at the age of eighty-five.
Girolamo faces a revolt by the citizens of Ceneda while serving as procurator for his brother, an... more Girolamo faces a revolt by the citizens of Ceneda while serving as procurator for his brother, and Venice is forced to intervene. But the decades-long blood feud in the Friuli finally comes to an end. After a pamphlet war and a duel, a Venetian procurator negotiates the Peace of 1568 between the heads of the warring families. Bishop Michele serves as papal nuncio to the French court. Gian Matteo is honoured with portraits in the Palazzo Ducale and several book dedications, but he reluctantly declines two prestigious posts because of ill health and dies in June 1570 at the age of seventy-nine. His will, omitting one son, leads to prolonged litigation. The Turks take Cyprus in 1571 and Michele fortifies the castle in Ceneda. As the threat recedes, he enjoys country life. Venice stages the triumphal entry of the new French king Henri III, but suffers two devastating fires in the Palazzo Ducale, and the worst plague in Venetian history.
The story begins in Venice in the last decade of the fifteenth century with the unhappy marriages... more The story begins in Venice in the last decade of the fifteenth century with the unhappy marriages of Antonia Bembo, sister of Cardinal Pietro Bembo and mother of Marcella Marcello. Drawing upon Pietro’s abundant correspondence, we learn of unfaithful husbands and faithful wives, the mal francese (syphilis), marriage strategies, dowries, and the special significance of brides in Venice. Marcella is married in 1519 to Gian Matteo Bembo, an up-and-coming young patrician. They start a family in Ca’ Bembo, the family palace at Santa Maria Nova. With the birth of their daughter Giulia in 1531, they establish a bloodline that will run through the book.
High on the wall of the right-hand aisle of the Frari above the door leading to the cloister is a... more High on the wall of the right-hand aisle of the Frari above the door leading to the cloister is a simple wooden casket in front of a painting that depicts a canopy with curtains held back by two winged putti. Among the notable features of the painting, now difficult to see because of its height and the ravages of time, are five coats of arms and a narrative grisaille decorating the canopy and a bloody skull above the casket. It will be shown that this overlooked monument is the visual residuum of a vendetta involving three noble families from the Patria del Friuli. Indeed, the painting, attributed here to Andrea Schiavone, offers a precious window into a past in which Republican values clashed with the deeply rooted feudal traditions of the mainland.
Artibus et historiae, no. 84 (XLII), 2021, 149-194., 2021
Most Venetians and students of Venetian history will recognize the name of Francesco Morosini (16... more Most Venetians and students of Venetian history will recognize the name of Francesco Morosini (1619-1694): the capitano generale da mar who surrendered Candia to the Turks in 1669 after the 25 year siege; recaptured most of the Morea (albeit destroying the Pantheon) in 1685-87; was elected doge in absentia in 1688; and died in 1694 during a unsuccessful campaign to retake Negroponte. Given the title Peloponnesiaco, he was the first Venetian to be honored with a bronze bust in the Maggior Consiglio of the Palazzo Ducale. And yet, the great warrior doge has overshadowed another Francesco Morosini (1560-1641), a homonym whose father was also named Pietro. A man of considerable achievements, this Francesco served in numerous offices, most notably as Provveditore Generale of Candia (1625-28) where he remade the civic center with a new loggia and fountain. Elected Procurator de Supra in 1630, he was called “il Doge” during his lifetime, but never attained the dogeship. He was buried alongside his wife in a magnificent tomb in San Pietro di Castello. This Francesco is often confused with his more famous namesake in modern scholarship; the present paper is intended to set the record straight.
Venetian officials in the terraferma and stato da mar were expected to walk a fine line between l... more Venetian officials in the terraferma and stato da mar were expected to walk a fine line between lordliness and modesty in the exercise of their administrative duties. But the desire to achieve a measure of personal magnificence– discouraged at home by the traditional ethos of mediocritas -- was irresistible. Coats of arms proliferated on public structures, lavish ceremonial entries and exits became the norm, and local elites honored departing officials with expensive gifts. This paper tracks the interplay between such initiatives in self-glorification and legislative attempts by the Venetian Senate and Council of Ten that attempted to circumscribe activities and objects that promoted the cult of the individual over the celebration of the Serenissima during the early modern period (15-18th centuries).
The visual world of the Venetians artisans and artists the art of public life the art of piety th... more The visual world of the Venetians artisans and artists the art of public life the art of piety the art of private life the aristocratic ideal.
Viewing the history of the Venetian Republic through the lens of its neighbors in the Balkans and... more Viewing the history of the Venetian Republic through the lens of its neighbors in the Balkans and its Mediterranean frontiers, this international panel of specialists examines the various exchanges—cultural, linguistic, and religious, among others—between the Ottoman and the Venetian worlds, between East and West. More info and registration: http://italianacademy.columbia.edu/LA-SERENISSIMA-east-of-venice
Eyewitnesses, Poets, and Orators: Narrative Painting in Renaissance Venice
Save Venice’s recent ... more Eyewitnesses, Poets, and Orators: Narrative Painting in Renaissance Venice Save Venice’s recent conservation campaigns focusing on Carpaccio’s paintings for the Scuola di Sant’Orsola and the Scuola Dalmata, as well as on Veronese’s theatrical paintings in the Church of San Sebastiano and Tintoretto’s dramatic ceiling paintings in the Palazzo Ducale have called attention to Venetian approaches to (and changing tastes in) pictorial narrative. Whether painting history, legend, scripture, or classical myth, Venetian artists were masters of the art of storytelling. Their narrative modes changed over time from an eyewitness style that privileged detail and happenstance, akin to the chronicle, to poetic renderings of pastoral themes, based on the odes and idylls of Roman and Greek writers such as Ovid, Lucretius, and Theocritus, to the dramatic presentation of subject matter drawn from history, mythology, and the Bible. This development often mirrored parallel changes in contemporary popular theatre and/or relief sculpture. This session welcomes presentations on any aspect of pictorial narrative in Venice, from large-format works in the Venetian scuole, churches, and public buildings, to small-scale scenes on predellas, furniture, and sculptural reliefs. Please send your full name, current affiliation, paper title (15-word maximum), abstract (150-word maximum), PhD completion date (past or expected), keywords, and a 1-page non-narrative curriculum vitae to the organizers, Sarah Blake McHam (sarah.blake.mcham@gmail.com) and Patricia Fortini Brown (pbrown@princeton.edu). Submission deadline is August 1, 2022.
Women Artists in Venice A growing body of research in Bologna and Florence during the last decade... more Women Artists in Venice A growing body of research in Bologna and Florence during the last decade has resurrected female artists and artisans on a scale previously unknown. A similar investigation, coordinated by Save Venice, is underway in Venice and its territories under the Republic. To recover the history of women artists and artisans born or active there in the early modern period, Save Venice solicits papers covering any aspect of their lives, careers, and works of art, considered as individuals or as a category. Please send abstracts of no more than 150 words with titles of 15 words max, along with a c.v. and a list of key words, to the organizer, Sarah Blake McHam (sarah.blake.mcham@gmail.com) by Friday, July 30, 2021.
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engramma-la tradizione classica nella memoria occidentale n.197 http://www.engramma.it/eOS/index.php?id_articolo=4884 1 of 4 12/25/2022, 4:48 PM
Despite the efforts by both the Della Torre and the Bembo families to preserve the patrimony through a succession of male heirs, the last survivor in the paternal bloodline of each was a daughter. This epic tale highlights the role of women in creating family networks and opens a precious window into a contentious period in which Venetian republican values clash with the deeply rooted feudal traditions of honor and blood feuds of the mainland.
Illustrated with hundreds of varied and unusual images, the book provides a lively picture of the aristocratic lifestyle during a period of changing definitions of nobility. The author considers such wide-ranging themes as attitudes toward wealth and display, the articulation of family identity, and the visual culture of Venetian women—how they decorated their homes, dressed, undertook domestic tasks, entertained, and raised their children. Recapturing the interplay between the public and private, she offers an account of Venetian households unequalled in vividness and detail.
Unlike the other great centers of Italian Renaissance art, Venice had no connection with ancient Rome; its site was not inhabited until after the fall of the empire. Brown (art and archaeology, Princeton) here argues that because of this lack of a Roman connection, Venetians devised a history for their city, creating a genealogy that they found acceptable. To support this formulation, Venice is examined during its Golden Age (the 13th to 16th centuries) through its arts, crafts, and literature to explore the "evolution of a Venetian view of time, of history and of historical change." Brown is painstaking in her research, using many translations of primary sources from the period. She includes 42 pages of notes and a 15-page bibliography (in small print). Though her writing style may strike the average reader as pedantic, specialists will find this a useful source
This well-illustrated inquiry examines individually and contextually the "eyewitness" paintings executed in Venice, ca. 1470-1530. Hung in government council chambers and religious lodges, these popular works depicted civic, diplomatic, and pious events of the day in a detailed but lyrical manner unique to the period. Their appeal derived from their surface beauty, lifelike portrayals, and inventive form as well as from their expression of contemporary social, cultural, and aesthetic values. Brown reconstructs the socio-political climate and visual culture that fostered these works, also offering a catalog of pre-1534 narrative painting cycles
engramma-la tradizione classica nella memoria occidentale n.197 http://www.engramma.it/eOS/index.php?id_articolo=4884 1 of 4 12/25/2022, 4:48 PM
Despite the efforts by both the Della Torre and the Bembo families to preserve the patrimony through a succession of male heirs, the last survivor in the paternal bloodline of each was a daughter. This epic tale highlights the role of women in creating family networks and opens a precious window into a contentious period in which Venetian republican values clash with the deeply rooted feudal traditions of honor and blood feuds of the mainland.
Illustrated with hundreds of varied and unusual images, the book provides a lively picture of the aristocratic lifestyle during a period of changing definitions of nobility. The author considers such wide-ranging themes as attitudes toward wealth and display, the articulation of family identity, and the visual culture of Venetian women—how they decorated their homes, dressed, undertook domestic tasks, entertained, and raised their children. Recapturing the interplay between the public and private, she offers an account of Venetian households unequalled in vividness and detail.
Unlike the other great centers of Italian Renaissance art, Venice had no connection with ancient Rome; its site was not inhabited until after the fall of the empire. Brown (art and archaeology, Princeton) here argues that because of this lack of a Roman connection, Venetians devised a history for their city, creating a genealogy that they found acceptable. To support this formulation, Venice is examined during its Golden Age (the 13th to 16th centuries) through its arts, crafts, and literature to explore the "evolution of a Venetian view of time, of history and of historical change." Brown is painstaking in her research, using many translations of primary sources from the period. She includes 42 pages of notes and a 15-page bibliography (in small print). Though her writing style may strike the average reader as pedantic, specialists will find this a useful source
This well-illustrated inquiry examines individually and contextually the "eyewitness" paintings executed in Venice, ca. 1470-1530. Hung in government council chambers and religious lodges, these popular works depicted civic, diplomatic, and pious events of the day in a detailed but lyrical manner unique to the period. Their appeal derived from their surface beauty, lifelike portrayals, and inventive form as well as from their expression of contemporary social, cultural, and aesthetic values. Brown reconstructs the socio-political climate and visual culture that fostered these works, also offering a catalog of pre-1534 narrative painting cycles
And yet, the great warrior doge has overshadowed another Francesco Morosini (1560-1641), a homonym whose father was also named Pietro. A man of considerable achievements, this Francesco served in numerous offices, most notably as Provveditore Generale of Candia (1625-28) where he remade the civic center with a new loggia and fountain. Elected Procurator de Supra in 1630, he was called “il Doge” during his lifetime, but never attained the dogeship. He was buried alongside his wife in a magnificent tomb in San Pietro di Castello. This Francesco is often confused with his more famous namesake in modern scholarship; the present paper is intended to set the record straight.
Save Venice’s recent conservation campaigns focusing on Carpaccio’s paintings for the Scuola di Sant’Orsola and the Scuola Dalmata, as well as on Veronese’s theatrical paintings in the Church of San Sebastiano and Tintoretto’s dramatic ceiling paintings in the Palazzo Ducale have called attention to Venetian approaches to (and changing tastes in) pictorial narrative.
Whether painting history, legend, scripture, or classical myth, Venetian artists were masters of the art of storytelling. Their narrative modes changed over time from an eyewitness style that privileged detail and happenstance, akin to the chronicle, to poetic renderings of pastoral themes, based on the odes and idylls of Roman and Greek writers such as Ovid, Lucretius, and Theocritus, to the dramatic presentation of subject matter drawn from history, mythology, and the Bible. This development often mirrored parallel changes in contemporary popular theatre and/or relief sculpture.
This session welcomes presentations on any aspect of pictorial narrative in Venice, from large-format works in the Venetian scuole, churches, and public buildings, to small-scale scenes on predellas, furniture, and sculptural reliefs.
Please send your full name, current affiliation, paper title (15-word maximum), abstract (150-word maximum), PhD completion date (past or expected), keywords, and a 1-page non-narrative curriculum vitae to the organizers, Sarah Blake McHam (sarah.blake.mcham@gmail.com) and Patricia Fortini Brown (pbrown@princeton.edu). Submission deadline is August 1, 2022.
Please send abstracts of no more than 150 words with titles of 15 words max, along with a c.v. and a list of key words, to the organizer, Sarah Blake McHam (sarah.blake.mcham@gmail.com) by Friday, July 30, 2021.