Venetian art and architectural history

Excerpt of lectures (22 febbraio 2010 at Ateneo Veneto, Venezia; 9 aprile 2010 at Accademia dei Concordi, Rovigo, and some more at Librerie Feltrinelli of Mestre, Padova and Treviso ) about the book "Venezia città mirabile" and the view of Venice Venetie MD and his presumed maker artist Jacopo de' Barbari.

The article reconstructs the history, evolution and organisation of the Bassano workshops across the broad span of their existence from 1578 to 1656. Careful historical reconstruction has outlined the profiles of four workshops on the basis of documents, many of which were hitherto unknown and/or unpublished.
The first bottega, directed in Bassano by Jacopo, was supplemented by parallel, yet interconnected, enterprises that were established in Venice by his sons Francesco (1578–1592) and Leandro (1587–1621). Upon Jacopo’s death, his other two sons, Giambattista and Girolamo, took over the family business (1592–1606), whose commercial position was progressively supported and improved as a result of Leandro’s leadership in the Venetian art market. Francesco died only a few months after his father and his shop was inherited by and divided among his three brothers.
The evolution of such a family business was not at all a natural or painless process, as traditionally suggested. It was, instead, the result of Jacopo’s careful and flexible planning, as well as of legal arbitration between father and sons, a complicated procedure that has been discussed in detail in the article.
At the very beginning of the third decade of the seventeenth century, Girolamo’s workshop, which he had meanwhile set up in Venice (1606–1621), was re-capitalised unexpectedly by one of his collaborators, Michele Pietra. Pietra extended his artistic services to include restoration and possibly the production of forgeries of works by famous painters of the sixteenth century (Bassano and Titian included). The analysis of unpublished documentation illuminates the role and importance of Pietra’s shop in terms of commercial strategies and the volume of production.
The article also takes into consideration the appreciation of the style and manner promoted by the four workshops. In particular, the study and attribution of new works, as well as the examination of key commissions, have presented the contributions of the various painters in a new historical perspective. But, more importantly, the paper also demonstrates how a style, which once belonged to Jacopo alone, came to be associated with a distinctive manner – the brand – of an entire clan of artists.

Il Post Scriptum aggiunge ulteriori riflessioni alla scheda sui due frammenti inediti di Jacopo Bassano raffiguranti la "Vergine" e un "Pastore" redatta nel 2019 per l'esposizione presso Banca Mediolanum a Bassano del Grappa. L'intervento è inserito nel numero speciale del Notiziario che gli Amici dei Musei hanno pubblicato per celebrare il dono dei quadri al locale Museo Civico nel 2021 grazie a una raccolta fondi e si concentra sul problema delle repliche nella bottega dei Bassano, ma anche sull'ipotesi di una possibile provenienza antica dei pezzi dalla collezione Ludovisi.

Due frammenti inediti di Jacopo Bassano, raffiguranti la "Vergine" e un "Pastore", sono apparsi nel 2019 sul mercato antiquario di Bassano del Grappa e sono stati esposti nel mese di dicembre per due giorni nella locale sede di Banca Mediolanum. Da quel momento ha avuto inizio una raccolta fondi per l'acquisto delle opere, in vista di una donazione al Museo Civico cittadino, che nella seconda metà del 2020 è stata presa in carico dagli Amici dei Musei e dei Monumenti di Bassano del Grappa e che si è conclusa nell'autunno 2021. Per celebrare il dono, gli Amici dei Musei hanno pubblicato un numero speciale del loro Notiziario dedicato ai due quadri e ad argomenti bassaneschi, nel quale si è riproposta anche la scheda realizzata in occasione dell'esposizione.

Italien als Vorbild.Ökonomische und kulturelle Verflechtungen europäischer Metropolen am Vorabend der 'ersten Globalisierung' (1300-1600)
Internationale Jahrestagung des Mittelalterzentrums „Forum Mittelalter“
der Universität Regensburg in Verbindung mit dem     
DFG-Graduiertenkolleg 2337 „Metropolität in der Vormoderne“ 
15. - 17. November 2018, Regensburg

La rivista "Venetica" propone un appropriato approfondimento sui Congressi italiani degli scienziati (1839-1847) ospitati nel Veneto asburgico (Padova 1842 e Venezia 1847) in un'ottica non localistica ma di localizzazione degli svolgimenti di un'istituzione "anomala" di una nascente comunità scientifica trasversale ai vari Stati preunitari.

Delendae Venetiae è la caustica esortazione che Pompeo Molmenti scagliava nel1887 dalle pagine della “Nuova Antologia” contro l'amministrazione veneziana che s'apprestava a ‘sanificare’ la città con 40 interventi urbanistici.
A distanza di oltre un secolo, in molti continuano a ritenere necessario ‘modernizzare’ Venezia per inserirla nel tempo del terzo millennio.

We Venetian magistrate Nicolò Zen, in his handwritten and printed works, expresses the Venetian cultural climate of the early 16th century, aimed at a social renewal of the Republic to be sought in the recovery
of ancient values and in the pursuit of equality as the foundation of internal harmony of the State. From an architectural point of view, this translates, especially during the "rst half of the 16th century, into the di[usion of a type of private building characterized by a contained mediocritas that avoids any con\ict with the opulence of the palaces of political power. We Brescian palaces of this period accurately re\ect the theories expressed by Zen and, at the same time, their facades become open books on which to read the progressive updating of the language of architecture, from bizarre proto-Renaissance expressions to the early exuberance anticipating the baroque. Moving from the words of Zen, it is possible to reconstruct a path between facades and portals of the Brescian palaces, in which this conservative renovatio urbis takes shape without impeding an ever more modern and updated de"nition of architecture. Wis up to some late 16th century examples in which mediocritas, so dear to the old nobility, is systematically disregarded by those who pretend to \aunt their social status.

Alberti & Gender The field of Architecture  -In practice and in theory – has historically been of the male domain. Alberti's The Ten Books of Architecture was the first modern treatise on the theory and practice of architecture, effectively setting the framework for architectural theory to come. In order to illuminate the complicity of syntax, grammar and diction in the gendering of contemporary architectural practice, it is necessary to fully deconstruct its origins – to parse out how and why the gender has determined, as well as manifested within, the language of the profession.

Whole of texts and historical testymonies by and on Giannantonio Selva, venician architect, professor at Accademia di Belle Arti, artist author of the Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The book collects also texts by Selva on Michele Sammicheli and of Antonio Canova, Antonio Diedo, Ippolito Pindemonte and others on the works of Selva himself and on his life.
Emiliano Balistreri describes all the venetian plans and projects by Selva and sketchs his biography and his partnership and relationship from the second half of XVIII century to the year 1819.

Il contributo presenta un lungo e interessante inventario di Villa Sardi a Rorai Grande di Pordenone, datato 1763. L’abitazione signorile, probabilmente cinquecentesca, dopo vari cambi di proprietà dieci anni prima era passata, insieme con l’annessa chiesetta di San Bernardino e un antico battirame (maglio), dalla nobile famiglia veneziana dei Lombria ai Sardi, anch’essi veneziani, forse discendenti
dell’architetto Giuseppe. L’inventario ci restituisce con grande precisione gli interni dell’edificio, nel quale erano presenti moltissimi oggetti, mobili, arredi, utensili domestici, quadri, attrezzi da lavoro e suppellettile religiosa.

The present paper provides an extensive and valuable inventory dated 1763 of Villa Sardi in Rorai Grande di Pordenone. This allegedly 16th-century manor went through several changes in ownership. Ten years prior to the inventory, the manor was transferred by the Lombria, a noble Venetian family, to the Sardi, also from Venice and possibly descending from architect Giuseppe Sardi, together with the attached small church of San Bernardino and an old copperwork. The inventory provides a truthful insight into the interiors of the manor, listing many items including furniture, furnishings, household goods, portraits, tools and religious material.

Sorta forse prima del Mille in un’area adiacente il Canal Grande e ancora ricoperta di zone lacustri che saranno poi velocemente colmate seguendo la rapida espansione della città, la chiesa di San Giacomo dall’Orio ha mantenuto il proprio carattere antico, isolata rispetto agli edifici circostanti. La piccola facciata è tuttora orientata verso il canale mentre le absidi sono rivolte verso il campo che abbraccia l’edificio quasi su tutti i lati: una situazione, considerata la sua peculiare vitalità, inusuale nella fitta trama urbana di Venezia. Per secoli il quartiere, oscillante tra la periferia e il centro realtino, è stato abitato da operai e artigiani, in prevalenza impiegati nelle manifatture tessili e capaci di manifestare un’intensa attività devozionale; poche invece le famiglie patrizie. E come un vero e proprio palinsesto, la chiesa è stata sottoposta nei secoli a continui restauri e rifacimenti che, integratisi nel tempo gli uni negli altri, restituiscono oggi un complesso armonico, di una bellezza del tutto singolare e riconoscibile. Il volume illustra tutti questi aspetti attraverso nuove ricerche, intrecciando le committenze artistiche con l’ambiente sociale della parrocchia, la sua vita religiosa e il suo contesto urbano.

This essay shows the provenance for one of Arthur Streeton’s greatest paintings, The Grand Canal (1908) which has not been featured in major Streeton publications of the late nineteenth century, or twentieth century, because it has been out of public circulation for up to 84 years. This paper is the longer version of the three published articles.

This volume in the series Lives of the Artists collects the major writings about Titian (c. 1488-1576) by his contemporaries and near contemporaries. The centrepiece is the biography by Vasari and includes the marginal annotations to Vasari by Annibale Carracci, which had never before published in English. The volume also presents for the full English translation of a selection of letters and poems by Pietro Aretino; Carlo Priscianese's full account of a dinner party with Titian, and the contributions by Speroni Speroni and Ludovico Dolce, round out the picture of this hugely thoughtful, intellectual artist, whose paintings remain some of the most sensual and affecting in all of Western art.
Mostly unavailable in any form for many years, these writings have been newly edited for this edition, including the identification of works and people mentioned in each text.

This article examines the sugar sculptures created for a ball in honor of Henri III of France in the Palazzo Ducale in Venice in 1574. The first part discusses the production and display of the statuettes. In the next section, the setting of the sugar sculptures is examined in the context of the collation prepared for the king in Palazzo Grimani in Santa Maria Formosa, which contains the city’s greatest collection of antiquities. Finally, the article examines the possible relationships between sugar statuettes and ancient sculptures and their use in crafting the image of Venice as a new Rome.

The altarpiece of Saints Catherine of Siena and Thomas Aquinas, formerly placed above the first altar on the right in the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, but destroyed by fire in 1867, is perhaps one of Giovanni Bellini’s most famous works – yet it is also one about which we possess the least material information. Through the analysis of primary sources and the surviving documentation this paper reconstructs the original material characteristics of the panel, including its technique and original size. The paper also discusses the restoration of the stone frame, still in situ and convincingly attributed to Pietro Lombardo and his workshop, and takes into account unpublished photographs of the 1994–1995 treatment supported by Save Venice. On the basis of this information a digital recreation of the original altarpiece is provided, and the opportunity is taken to correct the errors in the previous reconstructions published by Giles Robertson, Rona Goffen, and Denise Zaru.

Ca' Loredan a Santo Stefano è un esempio di trasformazione di case padronali gotiche in un atipico palazzo unitario "in linea". Antonio Abbondi detto Scarpagnino dimostra la sua abilità nel riuso di molte preesistenze in una creazione originale e scenografica

A key event in the introduction of neoclassical taste in Venice was the competition announced in 1771 by the Scuola di Santa Maria della Carità for the completion of the wall decoration in its Sala dell’Albergo, also known as the “Nuova Cancelleria”. The competitors were asked to paint a sketch depicting The Return of the Prodigal Son. Pietro Antonio Novelli’s rendition of this subject can now be compared with that of Giandomenico Tiepolo who eventually won the competition. The article also takes into account the minutes of the commission, with particular attention to the judgement of Anton Raphael Mengs, who knew both Venetian artists and who initially appeared to be willing to select Novelli.

This article investigates the origins, significance and varied inflections of the figure of an angel in Renaissance representations of St Roch. Although presumed to derive from the saint’s biography—specifically, to depict his cure from bubonic plague by an angel—the exact relationship between text and image is more complex than one of straightforward narrative illustration. Textual priority cannot be assumed, as representations of the new saint preceded by nearly two decades the earliest extant biographies. Moreover, these early vite make no mention of angelic involvement in Roch’s healing. Rocketing to success as efficacious plague protector in the late-fifteenth century, Roch has been recently unmasked as a pious fiction. By interrogating the multiple reworkings of the angel—shown blessing, announcing or actively curing with the tools of contemporary medicine—the essay elucidates the processes of saint formation and the key role of visual imagery in shaping worshippers’ conception of the saint and the operation of his protective powers.

The essay argues for the origins of the theme in Venetian art, and identifies Andrea da Murano's St Vincent Ferrer altarpiece (c. 1477-79; Accademia, Venice) as perhaps the earliest extant version. Other works discussed include Bartolomeo Vivarini's triptych for S. Eufemia (1480), a watercolour probably by notary, lawyer and print collector Jacopo Rubieri, and altarpieces by Titian and Pordenone. Analysis of the extant lives of the saint suggests that the origins of the theme of Roch and the angel are likely visual rather than textual. Subsequent sections investigate modifications to the theme in Northern Renaissance art, where identification of the angel as Raphael, the “angelic doctor,” encouraged artists to represent him not simply blessing or pointing to the bubo, but actively ministering to the diseased saint, applying a healing salve or even taking up the surgical instruments of his earthly counterparts to lance Roch’s bubo. The final section of the essay highlights the continuing mutability of depictions of saint and angel in sixteenth century Italian art, where the grounded heavenly attendant is replaced by the angel aloft. Works analyzed include paintings by Lombard artists such as Vicenzo Civerchio and Titian's print of c. 1517 for the Scuola di San Rocco.

In 1503 a large icon of the Hodegetria belonging to the Dominican friars of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, was transferred from the chapter house of the monastery to its own chapel adjacent to the cloister. The image was promoted as the icon before which St John of Damascus recovered his amputated hand, as a mediator in family disputes, and as an object of veneration by both Venetian Catholics and the Greek Orthodox community in that city. A series of polyglot pamphlets recording the history of the icon and its function as mediatrix par excellence further promoted the icon in the 17 th century, reinforcing the link the icon provided between Counter Reformation Catholics and Greek Orthodox immigrants in early modern Venice. Over the last one hundred and fifty years historians of both art and culture have addressed the presence of miraculous images in the city of Venice in a peculiarly univocal manner. Scholarly publications have limited their scope to the role of popular imagery in the secular sphere; the authenticity of the great palladium of the State-the Nicopeia; the presence of Greek icons in the Venetian Marian cult; and the development of Renaissance architecture associated with the most famous of the indigenous Venetian images. Only a very few studies, such as Edward Muir's article on the Venetian capitelli, expound the view of the miraculous images residing in Venice and its environs as part of an open system of efficacious objects that assisted the people of the city in their civic, religious, and spiritual self-identification. 1 The large Byzantine panel of the Hodegetria now resting on the altar in the chapel of San Giacinto at the Do-minican monastic church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice is a prime exemplar of the narrow focus scholars have directed towards images of sanctity in the Serenissima (fig. 1). Its own chapel was destroyed when the Venetian civic hospital was built in the 19 th century, nearly all the art adorning the space has been lost, and the archives of its religious confraternity contain significant lacunae. Scholars have found little of interest in the story of the icon beyond its sad history in the years after Napoleon's wholesale suppression of religious organizations in the city. 2 Yet the position the image occupied in early modern Venice as mediatrix par excellence both at the personal level and within the complicated religious structure of the city warrants a closer examination, for its function in early modern Venice was unique. Unfortunately the fate of virtually all the miraculous images in Venice has been harsh. During the initial period of French occupation immediately after the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797, soldiers looted a large number of churches and monasteries of their precious objects and works of art. The great wave of destruction came in the period between 1806 and 1815, when the French reoccupied Venice and suppressed over a third of its 187 churches. Of the eighty-six churches that were closed, seventy were torn down between 1806 and 1860, and though some material survives from these lost churches the contextual relationship between the images and the sacred space they occupied has been irrevocably lost. UDK: