By Eva Sztabholz. 2017 MA Field Trip to Vicenza and Venice (Day 3: Tuesday 14 March).
You know you are in Venice when the first thing you see in the morning when you open your Hotel room’s window is the beautifully ornate façade of the Church S. Maria del Giglio. And here we go: we started our day with the traghetto, a short but hectic gondola ride across the Grand Canal that fortunately occurred without any major incidents.
We made our way to the Church of Santa Maria della Salute and stood in front of it to admire the exuberant and theatrical baroque façade. After a quick giro of the church, we left in order to catch the vaporetto that would take us to the Rialto Bridge. While waiting for the boat we took our first group picture of the day (above) and drew names for our ‘Secret Santa’. The boat arrived and some of us sat at the back in the sun. During the ride, we passed the Accademia Bridge already full of people at 9.30 in the morning. We continued our serene cruise on the Grand Canal. There was something really relaxing and peaceful in looking at people from the boat: Venetians busy with their daily lives, the tourists hurrying up to catch the vaporetto, the gondolieri waiting for new clients, the boat deliveries…
The Rialto Bridge finally appeared to us, we all got off and Emily (above) took us up to the roof top of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi (the German Warehouse, now a shopping centre) in order to give her presentation, The Rebuilding of the Rialto. From there we could admire the incredible 360° view of Venice while Emily transported us back to the 16th century. This special moment, where we could look down at the city, full of life and activity, was short-lived. Indeed, the 10 minutes regulatory time was over and we got kicked out by the security man. The presentation ended on the water’s edge, in front of the Rialto Bridge.
Our journey throughout the many calle, ponte and campo of the city continued and led us to the Church of S. Maria Gloriosa dei Frari but at this point we just got a teaser view of it since the visit was planned for the afternoon. We carried on and finally arrived at the Galleria dell’Accademia, or the ‘Panthéon of Venetian Art’ as Philip would say. The artistic journey through time started with Jacopo del Fiore’s Tryptic of Justice, dating from the 15th century, and continued with Giovanni Bellini, Sebastiano del Piombo, Tintoretto and Veronese (all of the Venetian Renaissance’s major artists).
My personal highlight from the visit would be the two small paintings both by Giorgione (1478-1510): Col Tempo aka La Vecchia (above, right – soon renamed The Hag by the group) which reminds us that life is fleeting and, La Tempesta (above, centre) – the subject of which is still a mystery today but according to Carla, ‘sometimes, knowing less is more!’.
After a quick lunch in the sun at the Campo S. Barnaba, followed by the indispensable gelato, we marched to the Scuola Grande di San Rocco behind our Capo Gruppo holding his Irish flag. The Scuola, (which is still going today), houses a beautiful decorative scheme by Tintoretto (1519-1594) who developed an aggressive business strategy to get the commission by donating one of the canvases to the ceiling in the Sala Capitolare of the Scuola. We left the Scuola and then had the 2nd vital gelato stop of the day. The last visit which crowned our eventful day was the to the Church S. Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, one of the two biggest mendicant churches of Venice. After being shushed by the ticket lady, we walked toward the altar, sat down in front of Titian’s Assumption of the Virgin (1516-18), and enjoyed the masterpiece we had before us (above).
Posted 2 May 2017.
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