Doge Palace, Capital n23 People of the World "Ongari" Hungarians - Next to Tatars and Turks
During a photo walk in Venice this morning.
Art and History
Casanova filming in Venice /
Few frames backstage and behind the scenes from the new film "The secret of Casanova" produced by ZDFDirector Eike Schmitz Casanova: Adrian Becker
Costumes, Researches, Historic boats etc by Ateleir Pietro Longhi Venezia
You can find all my images here
Venice Photo Tour On the Steps of Canaletto /
Giovanni Antonio Canal, alias Canaletto, was a painter and engraver who lived in Venice in the 18th century; he is world-famous for his wonderful views of Venice.
Topography, architecture, nature, atmosphere and lights are all mingled in his masterpieces creating realistic scenarios and authentic testimonials of the life and architecture of his time.
This itinerary propose the same places that Canaletto depicted in his works taking the participant to look at each location from the same angulation as if he/she were looking through Canaletto’s own eyes, searching for the differences between the 18th century Venetian landscape and today’s landscape as well as for what has remained unvaried since Canaletto’s time.
Le grand guide de Venise - sur les pas de Guardi et Canaletto
Guardi, Canaletto et autres artistes du XVIIIe siècle se sont attachés à peindre toutes les facettes de leur ville. Près de trois siècles plus tard, Alain Vircondelet, un des plus grands historiens de Venise, avec photographe Marco Secchi s'adonne à une comparaison passionnante entre les photos de la ville d'aujourd'hui et les tableaux de celle d'hier. Douze circuits sont ainsi proposés au lecteur et commentés par l'auteur.
Un guide de Venise passionnant en pleine actualité de l'exposition dédiée à Canaletto au Musée Maillol.
The book is for sale with Amazon
The Dragon and The Snake /
I never would have found this thing if I hadn't seen it in a book first...and a colleague in helping me with good directions!! It's very tucked away and even with directions, I had a hard time finding it.
"This work has an interesting symbology. The figure brings together in a single symbol two aspects of the Cosmos: the dragon is yang, active principle and divine power; while the serpent is yin, the principle of reproduction and primordial water. The intertwined double spiral represents two directions of one movement: balance and imbalance, birth and death, the initiation of death and the rebirth of new being. The rings thus mark the mid-line between yang and yin, an alternative twofold expansion and the point of balance between two opposing cosmic forces."
S Maria della Pieta' o della Visitazione (XVIII sec.) /
While on the trail of Canaletto I "discovered" la Pieta' .First foundation was of the fifteenth century but its actual aspect is due to architect Massari who completely rebuilt it in the 1745.The facade has a classical style, with a bas-relief above the main entrance representing the La Carità, a work by the sculptor Marsili (1800).
A few images from today shoot are here
The Church has a egg-shaped plan with a vaulted ceiling; sideways there're two choirs where once were played concerts by the woman whom used to live in the institute that stands from the side.Church has an absolute importance because of the presence of Gian Battista Tiepolo's works, the Fortezza e la Pace on the ceiling of the entry and the Trionfo delle Fede painted on the ceiling of the church, a real masterpiece by Tiepolo representing the crowning of Our Lady by the God's hand.
Saint Theodore or Todaro /
"Right Theo, it's been great, but can you pack your bags now? We've got a new patron saint and, well, he just happens to be one of the blokes who wrote the Bible. Heard of it? It's a cracking read! Plus his symbol is a winged lion, which is lots cooler than some dead crocodile, don't you think? No hard feelings, mate!"
I am not sure if this is how it went....but for sure Theo wasn't very pleased... Having said that the original statue is not the one on the Column but the one if the Square of Palazzo Ducale! Anyway I love the crocodile ...so cute!
Saint Theodore of Amasea treading upon the sacred crocodile of Egypt. Perhaps he killed it with the holy hand grenade of Antioch...
Saint Theodore was a Byzantine saint who was the former patron saint of Venice. When Venice and Byzantium fell out, he was replaced by Saint Mark. He still tops one of the two columns at the southern end of the piazza San Marco
Venice in a day /
There's no doubt that Venice is beautiful - but if you want to see it in an even more beautiful way (without getting on a plane), you could do a lot worse than watch this timelapse video of one day in the magical city, from sunrise to sunset.Created by Swiss Vimeo user Joerg Niggli, it's a three and a half minute mini-masterpiece that'll make you miss ol' Venezia even if you haven't actually been there.
[vimeo 40977797 w=500 h=281]
Canaletto sketches on show @ Palazzo Grimani /
‘Canaletto. Il Quaderno Veneziano’Museo di Palazzo Grimani, Castello 4858 (Santa Maria Formosa), Venice1st April – 1st July 2012
The title of this unique exhibition runs to ‘Canaletto. The Venice Sketchbook/Notebook’, albeit that the original sketches were loose sheets, bound only in the 19th century. The core of the exhibition is these said sketches of Venice, probably dating from a brief time period, and giving a fascinating insight (via notes, scribbles, comments on light, colours and settings) into the modus operandi of this great artist. Also on show are numerous other pieces – sketches, scribbles, drafts – from collections both private and public.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV3WspW6I1o&w=560&h=315]
Urs Fisher at Palazzo Grassi /
It’s named after a mysterious Madame Fisscher the exhibition dedicated to Urs Fischer, which is set to open at Palazzo Grassi - François Pinault
Using his witty sense of humor, Zurich artist Urs Fischer invites us into his chaotic London studio which, ironically, has also got a name: Madame Fisscher. Clearly we are talking about a work of art and Madame Fisscher is simply a fictional character made up by the artist.
Curated by Fischer himself alongside Caroline Bourgeois and hosted at Palazzo Grassi between April 15th and July 15, the exhibition named after this mysterious lady is very likely to play tricks on our senses.
Who Really Discovered America? /
A 14th-century voyage across the North Atlantic; a 16th-century publishing event; and a 21st-century quest are the subjects of a book by Andrea di Robilant, a distinguished scholar of Venetian history.
The modern story follows the author’s investigations after stumbling upon an old book in the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice while looking for something else. An American-educated Italian whose previous titles include the well-received “Venetian Affair,” di Robilant admits to an “obsession” with the shadowy figures who emerged from his initial inquiries. The old book turned out to be a travel narrative and map published in Venice in 1558 and written by one Nicolò Zen. Piecing together archival scraps, di Robilant discovers that Zen was a nobleman (the young Tintoretto painted the family palazzo), a hydraulic engineer and a minor historian. Zen’s hometown, Venice, previously a sea power, was shifting to a land-based economy at the time of his birth in 1515, and had taken control of most of northern Italy. A new doge, Andrea Gritti, was presiding over a period of renewal that stimulated the appetite for knowledge of a world emerging from medieval darkness. Di Robilant is excellent on the contextual background and its relevance to the text under scrutiny.
Zen’s book told the story of a voyage undertaken by his great-great-great-grandfather Antonio Zen and Antonio’s brother Messer Nicolò, Venetian aristocrats who may (or may not) have sailed around the North Atlantic in the 1380s and 1390s. Travel narratives were popular in the Age of Discovery, and the book about this ancestral journey sold well. (Zen wrote it, unusually, in Italian rather than Latin.)
The book can be ordered on Amazon : Venetian Navigators: The Voyages of the Zen Brothers to the Far North
ELLIOTT ERWITT: "Personal Best" /
After the MEP in Paris, the Reina Sofia in Madrid and the ICP in New York, this anthological show, a tribute to the extraordinary career of the photoreporter, a member of the historic Magnum agency since 1953, arrives in Venice in the splendid early 20th century Venetian dwelling, now open again following protracted restoration.
Around 140 photographs, witnessing a long career and the past six decades of history of our world and contemporary civilization, are on display in a selection under the direct curatorship of their author.
Few pictures on my archive are here and on Getty Images are here
| Place | CASA DEI TRE OCI |
| Address | Giudecca 43 |
| Boat stop | Linea 2 Actv Zitelle |
| Times | Opening hours: 10am - 7pm. Saturday 10am - 10pm. |
Avere una Bella Cera at Fortuny /
The exhibition at Museum Fortuny in Venice opens tomorrow 10th March until June 25 and is the world's first exhibition on wax portraits analizing a field that has been studied very little by art historians.The world’s first exhibition on wax portraits will analyse a field that has been studied very little by art historians: that of life-size wax figures. This fascinating subject has recently attracted the attention of numerous contemporary artists, but has never had a specific exhibition devoted to it.
The project was inspired by two fortunate coincidences, the existence of a series of life- size wax portraits in Venice’s public collections and churches, and the centenary of the publication of Geschichte der Porträtbildnerei in Wachs (“History of Portraiture in Wax”), written by the famous Viennese art historian Julius von Schlosser and the first work devoted to the history of wax portraits. A superb Italian translation of Schlosser’s work by Andrea Daninos has recently been published, complete with an extensive and detailed critical commentary.
The Venetian exhibition is the outcome of more than three years of research and, for the first time, it brings together nearly all of the extant sculptures in Italy, most of which unpublished or never displayed before.
Diana Vreeland at Fortuny /
Press preview today of this great exhibition of such style and fashion icon.This is the first major exhibition to be dedicated to Diana Vreeland. Open until June 25th at Palazzo Fortuny it will explore the many sides of her work and seek to offer a fresh approach with which to interpret the elements of her style and thinking.
This is the first major exhibition to be dedicated to the extraordinary and complex Diana Vreeland (Paris, 1903 – New York, 1989). It will explore the many sides of her work and seek to offer a fresh approach with which to interpret the elements of her style and thinking.
The title stresses the need today to decontextualise the many facets that go to make up her kaleidoscopic career and to reconnect them in a new reading of the multiple meanings underlying her now legendary professional and human experience.
The exhibition will not limit itself to displaying some garments, although it will indeed be possible to admire many and extraordinary items; it will instead ‘short-circuit’ time, the articles on show and their ‘aura’, showing how fashion is both a complex phenomenon and the perfect observatory for interpreting the tastes and trends of contemporary society. The aim being to restore a sense of the “magnificent gait” with which Diana Vreeland processed through fashion of the 20th century, initially during her years at “Harper’s Bazaar” and “Vogue”, and then in her role as Special Consultant for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
An Introduction to Rembrandt Lighting For Portrait Photographers /
If you’re a beginning photographer, chances are you’re still in the process of building up your arsenal of studio lighting. Being able to get the most out of a small lighting setup can be crucial to your photography. For those working with a one or two light setup, Rembrandt lighting can help you achieve professional quality portraits with a minimal amount of equipment.
On the trail of Tintoretto /
An exhibition honouring 16th-century Venetian master Tintoretto opens in Rome today Saturday, following the painter's career from his days as an ambitious disciple of Titian to a bitter old age. "Tintoretto was the most controversial painter of his time," Melania Mazzucco, one of the organisers, told reporters in the Italian capital. Tintoretto, whose real name was Jacopo Robusti, owed his nickname to his father who was a manufacturer of dyes ("tinta" in Italian). He became one of the greatest practitioners of the Venetian style.
Tintoretto used to live meters away from Campo Dei Mori where he used to walk probably every day
The exhibition, which runs until June 10, begins with one of his monumental works "The Miracle of the Slave" (1548), measuring 4.16 metres by 5.44 metres (14 feet by 18 feet) and normally jealously guarded in Venice. The choice of putting a slave at the centre of the painting instead of the saint who is rescuing him was considered scandalous at the time.Another masterpiece in the show is "The Theft of the Body of Saint Mark" (1564) showing a group of Christians in Alexandria taking away the saint's body from a bonfire that has been miraculously extinguished by rain. Apart from religious and mythological subjects, Tintoretto also painted hundreds of portraits -- a source of revenue from aristocrats, writers and celebrities that he used for contacts and protection. Tintoretto's pride was legendary: he once turned down a knighthood from French king Henry III because he did not want to kneel down and he refused to allow his beloved daughter Marietta to leave his home. His final years were cruel to the painter. Marietta died in 1590, followed by his son Giovanni Battista. His last self-portrait shows a somber and humbled Tintoretto, his face marked by the harshness of life. His last child died in a convent in 1652, leaving him without descendants.
Venice Museums 2012 program /
Presentation today by Walter Hartsarich President of Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia of the 2012 program.There are many scheduled events but the highlights should be two exhibitions at Museo Correr the first about Klint and the second about Francesco Guardi.....
Others include «Primavera a Palazzo Fortuny: avere una bella cera» (Museo Fortuny, 10 marzo-28 giugno), «Sartorio e Venezia» (Ca’ Pesaro, primavera 2012), «San Michele in isola. Cenacolo di umanisti o ‘caput ordinis’ dei Camaldolesi?» (maggio-agosto 2012), «Moda e cinema 1840-1940» (Museo di Palazzo Mocenigo, settembre-dicembre 2012), «Uecker e Castellani» (Ca’ Pesaro, autunno 2012) e «Fortuny e Wagner» (Museo Fortuny, novembre 2012-marzo 2013).
In the photograph Mr Walter Hartsarich during a portrait session ahead of today press Conference
Thodoros Angelopulos at Incroci di Civilta' /
The Greek film director Theo Angelopoulos, who has died yesterday aged 76 in a road accident, was an epic poet of the cinema, creating allegories of 20th-century Greek history and politics. He redefined the slow pan, the long take and tracking shots, of which he was a master. His stately, magisterial style and languidly unfolding narratives require some effort on the part of the spectator.
The above picture was taken during his last visit to Venice last year, when he was invited by Incroci di Civilta', a brilliant yearly festival that involves writers, authors, film directors, screen players etc etc but this is another story
Armenian Exhibition at Museo Correr /
On Wednesday is going to open at the Museo Correr - Museo Archeologico an Exhibition about "Armenia: Signs of Civilization" . The Exhibition has been organised by Gabriella Uluhogian, Boghos Levon Zekiyan e Vartan Karapetian and will show about 200 exhibits including some very rare ones! The exhibition will mark the fifth centenary of the first book printed in the Armenian language. This exhibition will act as the official launch of the jubilee celebrations taking place in the Armenian capital Yerevan, a UNESCO World Book Capital for 2012. The history of the island and of the Mekhitarists order in Venice is really interesting.I am really looking forward to go to the Press Preview but for the time being here is a photograph from S Lazzaro degli Armeni, one of my favourite islands of the all lagoon not only for its beauty and tranquillity but for special moments shared in fascinating and interesting conversation with Padre Elia.
Tribute to Lorenzo Lotto - The Hermitage Paintings At The Accademia Gallery /
Switching alliances. After having been so passionate about Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto) at the point that one of the reasons I choose my present house in Venice was due to being close to the Tintoretto's house and workshop I find myself deeply in love with Lorenzo Lotto. Traitor!
The Hermitage Paintings at Accademia Gallery on November 23, 2011 in Venice, Italy. The exhibition, which includes two very rare and previously unseen paintings, opens from the November 24 2011 to February 26, 2012 in Venice
Venice Biennale head ousted /
If the Venice Biennale art exhibition now runs like a normal international event, with adequate toilets, refreshment points, marketing, press facilities and ticketing, and also manages to cover nearly 80% of its costs, it is almost entirely due to former banker Paolo Baratta, 72, chairman of the Biennale Foundation from 1998 to 2000, and from 2007 to last week.
Yesterday Baratta heard that his mandate would not be renewed and his successor would be a foodstuffs importer, Giulio Malgara, 73
I strongly believe it is the wrong choice...possibly the worst choice to be correct.
This appointment, which is reminiscent of the years before 1998 when the post was a prize allocated on the basis of party politics, was greeted with indignation by the mayor of Venice, Giorgio Orsoni, who immediately put out a statement saying: “I am convinced that Giulio Malgara is an unsuitable person to carry out the role of chairman of the Venice Biennale and that it would be a mistake to confirm him in this position. It would interrupt a vital and fruitful process that needs to be seen through to the end.” Former mayor Massimo Cacciari said: “As long as cultural appointments in this rotten system are in the hands of the political lobbies, it will go on being like this.”
The Guardian alredy commente: "Back to Earth, or Venice, with a bump. Silvio Berlusconi is trying to replace Paolo Baratta, head of the Venice Biennale, with his friend Giulio Malgara, a 73-year-old businessman whose greatest cultural achievement to date is bringing Gatorade to Italy."
