New books: Venice and the staging of its glory

After two critically acclaimed books on Rome, the Danish art historian Mogens Nykjær has moved his focus further north, more precisely to Venice. The result is Venezia – Byhistorie og kunst, a gem among the many books on this most enchanting of cities.
In this lavishly illustrated, information-packed volume Nykjær investigates the relation between history and art in Venice, focusing on the years between the thirteenth century and the Napoleonic age immediately after the fall of the Republic.
Many of Venice’s many famous churches, palatial mansions and artworks go by in this book, but also simpler dwelling houses, communal wells and the many campos around which entire societies in miniature could revolve (Nykjær relates the story of an author who went to see an 100-year-old lady living near the Church of San Pietro di Castello in order to ask her about life in St Mark’s Square in her youth, only to be told that the centenarian had never once been to the Square).
But naturally the major sites, such as the Basilica of St Mark, the Ducal Palace and St Mark’s Square, are given the most thorough treatment and a chapter on ducal funerary monuments are among what stands out in this book.
Venice, Nykjær points out, is virtually alone among major Italian cities in not having a Roman past. This makes it a polycentric city, not a planned, monocentric city like those of Roman origins. But most importantly it meant that when Venice became a great power in the thirteenth century, one saw the need for inventing a past which could bear comparison to those cities with such a past.
And this – the staging of Venice, its self-celebration through art – is the main theme of Mogens Nykjær’s book. Venice cast itself in the role as the new Rome and the new Byzantium, a chosen city with a privileged position, closer to Christ and the Virgin Mary than any other city.
Nykjær highlights how the Doge’s throne in the Sala Del Maggior Consiglio in the Ducal Palace is situated immediately beneath Christ in Tintoretto’s glorious fresco “Paradise”, alluding to the Doge as the earthly mirror image of Christ. The same relation between Christ and the Doge can be found in Pietro Lombardo’s funerary monument to Doge Pietro Mocenigo in the Basilica of San Zanipolo.
In another of the Ducal Palace’s halls, those saved in Palma il Giovane’s “Doomsday” rush to that corner of the picture which is to be found above the door leading to the short corridor linking this hall to the Sala Del Maggior Consiglio. This is as Nykjær sees it the very culmination of how Venice presents itself through its art as a privileged, chosen city. Those redeemed on doomsday are shown rushing towards the door to Paradise – to Venice.
The self-staging of Venice reached its climax in the sixteenth century, when the might of the Republic was in fact in decline – partly as a result of Vasco da Gama’s finding an alternative route to India in 1498 and thus depriving Venice of its monopoly in trading with spices. But, as Nykjær points out, this was only a logical result of the usual practice whereby the urge for stressing the magnitude of one’s power increases when actual power decreases.
Thus, the sixteenth century was nevertheless the “imperial age” of Venice, when she rested contentedly in the position she had acquired while watching it slowly crumble. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the sack of Rome in 1527 provided Venice with an even greater opportunity to present itself as the new Constantinople and the new Rome – the imperial survivor.
Yet even the thousand-year-old Republic of Venice eventually came to an end. In the eighteenth century the authorities could no longer afford embellishing the city in the way it had hitherto done and the initiative shifted to private actors who also no longer refrained from glorifying themselves or their families rather than Venice – as can be seen in for instance Villa Pisani in Stra.
Mogens Nykjær’s interpretation of Venice and how it staged its own power and position through the arts is an excellent book which will hopefully be translated into other languages and take its natural place among the classics on this fascinating city.

What to see: Church of Santa Maria di Nazareth (Scalzi), Venice

The Church of Santa Maria di Nazareth is one of Venice’s best examples of Baroque churches. The popular name “Scalzi” refers to the Carmelite barefoot monks who established their order in Venice in 1633 and bought the plot of land facing the Grand Canal on which their church was built.
The architect Baldassare Longhena enlarged the church in 1654 and it was given its present appearance between 1660 and 1689 by Giuseppe Pozzo, who created the sumptuous interior seen in the first two pictures, and Giuseppe Sardi, who built the façade of Carrara marble. The church is a good example of how many Venetian churches have spent everything on the main façade and nothing on the side walls, as seen in the fourth photo. The vault originally had a fresco by Tiepolo, but this was unfortunately destroyed in a WWI air raid on Venice in 1915.
There are several side chapels on either side of the nave. In the Manin chapel (fifth photo) a simple stone slab marks the resting place of Ludovico Manin, the last Doge. It was he who, after the French invasion in 1797 brought down the millennial Republic, took of his ducal cornice and gave it to his servant with the words: “Take it away, I shall not be needing it again”. The text on the stone reads simply: “Manini cineres”, “the ashes of Manin”.

What to see: The Dano-Nordic pavilion, the 53rd Biennale, Venice

Some days ago I wrote about the 53rd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale, in Venice. I should also include something about the Norwegian contribution, which is in fact a pan-Nordic one. The Nordic pavilion (Sweden, Norway and Finland) is located next to the Danish and for this Biennale they have joined forces for the exhibition “The Collectors”, curated and staged by the Norwegian duo Elmgreen & Dragset and with 24 artists participating.
The two pavilions are furnished as a deserted home where some sort of disaster with homoerotic undertones has struck and is as such reminiscent of the exhibition “Home is the place you left” at Trondheim Art Gallery last year.
To the left in the first photo are several pictures by Tom of Finland, while “Maquette for a Giant Spinning O” by Jonathan Monk can be seen outside the windows. In the second photo is “Butterflies” by Han & Him, while the third shows the painting “The act of pollination” by Herman Bas and the fourth two Polynesian sculptures lent by Francesca von Habsburg.
In the fifth photo is a detail of “Table for Bergman” by Elmgreen & Dragset. Then comes the staircase in the library and the mirror in the hallway and finally “Death of a Collector”, also by Elmgreen & Dragset.

What to see: The 53rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale, Venice

It is summer in an odd-numbered year, which means the Biennale is taking place in Venice. Since the first exhibition in 1895, the Biennale has been one of the most important venues for showing modern and avant-garde art.
This year’s Biennale, the 53rd in the row, is called “Making Worlds”. It opened on 7 June and is on until 22 November, with more countries (77) than ever before taking part. The largest sections are at the Giardini and the Arsenale, but there are also exhibitions and events on many locations in the city itself and outside it.
The first photo shows glass artworks outside the Venetian pavilion, while the second shows a globe by Chen Zhen. Following them are images from the Spanish, Polish, Egyptian, French, Russian and Hungarian pavilions and finally a view of the Moroccan contribution, which is housed in the Church of Pietà.
The Biennale’s website: http://www.labiennale.org/en/art/index.html

What to see: The former Cathedral of San Pietro di Castello, Venice

All visitors to Venice will be familiar with the city’s cathedral, St Mark’s Basilica. But this spectacular church has in fact only been the cathedral of Venice for 202 years – its predecessor, the Basilica of San Pietro, can be found at the tip of the island of Castello. The island, formerly called Olivolo, has been inhabited since the fifth century and the first church on the spot was built in the seventh century and dedicated to the saints Serge and Bacchus.
The first church of San Pietro was dedicated in 841 and became the seat of the patriarch of Venice in 1451, meaning that it also became the cathedral of the city of Venice. In 1556 the Patriarch, Vincenzo Diedo, commissioned the great architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) to rebuild the cathedral. Work started the following year. Palladio began with the façade, but work stopped when Diedo died.
It was only in 1621 that the new church was completed by Palladio’s disciple Francesco Girolamo Grapiglia, who followed Palladio’s plans, but made certain changes. The façade, built of Istrian stone, is typically Palladian and reflects the church’s Latin cross shape with three naves. In true Palladian fashion the church also has a large dome. The bell tower is by Mauro Codussi and was built 1482-1488.
The church’s interior is a blend of renaissance and baroque, with Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini’s cycle of St Peter’s life culminating in the apotheosis painted above the high altar. The high altar itself was designed by Baldassare Longhena and executed in 1649. The church has several side chapels; one of them, Capella Vendramin, can be seen in the final photo.
San Pietro di Castello kept its status as the Cathedral of Venice until 1807 when Napoléon I, Emperor of the French and King of Italy, transferred that status to the Basilica of St Mark, which until the fall of the Republic ten years earlier had been simply the chapel of the Doge’s Palace.
In the photos one can also see the Rossall School Chamber Choir, conducted by Margaret E. Young, rehearsing for a concert in the former cathedral last Sunday.

What to see: The former Royal Palace, Venice

When incorporating Venice into the Kingdom of Italy on 1 May 1806 Napoléon I, Emperor of the French and King of Italy thought he needed a suitable residence in that city. For various reasons the Doge’s Palace was rejected and the imperial eyes fell on the 16th century Procuratie Nuove along the southern end of St Mark’s Square. In the middle of the western end stood the small church of San Geminiano, which had to make way when the Emperor-King in January 1807 announced his intention to link the Procuratie Vecchie on the northern side of the square and the Procuratie Nuove on the southern side by creating the new royal palace, today known as the Ala Napoleonico (the Napoleonic Wing).
This plan had been worked out by the architect Giovanni Antonio Antolini (1756-1841), who had been commissioned by Napoléon’s adopted son Prince Eugène, Viceroy of Italy and Prince of Venice. Antolini was dismissed in 1810 and the work was continued by Giuseppe Soli (1745-1823) and Lorenzo Santi (1783-1866).
The palace came to consist of the new Napoleonic Wing and the Procuratie Nuove as well as the Biblioteca Marciana and part of the old Mint. It was however not yet completed when Napoléon fell from power and Venice once again came under Habsburg rule. Because of the Habsburgs’ wish for remodelling and changes the works continued until the 1840s. In 1919 the King of Italy gave the State the use of the palace, which came to house the Correr Museum and the National Archaeological Museum.
Napoléon himself was never much popular in Venice, where the harsh treatment of the first French occupation in 1797 was vividly remembered and where the choice of Milan as capital of the Kingdom of Italy was resented. He visited Venice only once, in November-December 1807, bringing with him Prince Eugène, the King and Queen of Bavaria, three of his siblings, his brother-in-law Joachim Murat and the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Bavaria.
The first picture shows the façade of the Napoleonic Wing with the Procuratie Nuove to the left. Having become almost black with the years the façade is now being cleaned, which explains the scaffolding. Second is the monumental staircase, which took the place of the San Geminiano church. The third photo shows Antonia Canova’s “Venere Italica” in the Dining Hall (Sala da Pranzo). Another dining room is in the fourth photo, followed by a glimpse into the Ballroom (Salone da Ballo), which is now used for temporary exhibitions. The sixth picture shows the Napoleonic Gallery (Galleria napoleonica) and finally the ceiling of the Throne Room (Sala del Trono).