Venetian

Vetreria Salviati (Venice)
Urn with Ring Handles and Leaf Stem
ca. 1885
glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Vetreria Salviati (Venice)
Dolphin Candelabrum
ca. 1890
glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Vetreria Salviati (Venice)
Pair of Green Dolphin Candlesticks
ca. 1890
glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Vetreria Salviati (Venice)
Pair of Cranberry Dolphin Vases
ca. 1890
glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Artisti Barovier (Venice)
Granzioli Dragon Compote
ca. 1895-1915
glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Vetreria Salviati (Venice)
Amphora with Swan Handles
ca. 1890
glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Vetreria Salviati (Venice)
Pink Compote
ca. 1890
glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Vetreria Salviati (Venice)
Dolphin Vase
ca. 1890
glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Artisti Barovier (Venice)
Pair of Dolphin Candlesticks
ca. 1895-1915
glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Vetreria Salviati (Venice)
Leaf-Shaped Dragon Compote
ca. 1890
glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Vetreria Salviati (Venice)
Blue Dolphin Vase
ca. 1890
glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Vetreria Salviati (Venice)
Cornucopia Candlestick
caa. 1890
glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Vetreria Salviati (Venice)
Blue Cobalt Chalice with Floral Knob
ca. 1890
glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Vittorio Zecchin (Venice)
Amphora
ca. 1920-25
glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Vittorio Zecchin (Venice)
Veronese Vase
ca. 1920-25
glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Artisti Barovier (Venice)
Dragon Vase
ca. 1895-1915
glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

from Radium

When summer ended, my sister was going to school.

No more staying at home with the dogs,

waiting to catch up.

No one wanted to stay home. Real life

was the world: you discovered radium,

you danced the swan queen. Nothing

explained my mother. Nothing explained

putting aside radium because you realized finally

it was more interesting to make beds,

to have children like my sister and me.

– Louise Glück (2001)

Unknown Italian Faces by Unknown Italian Artists

Anonymous Italian Artist
Young Woman from the Campagna
19th century
oil on canvas
National Gallery, Athens

Anonymous Italian Artist
Veiled Nun
ca. 1863
marble
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Anonymous Italian Artist
Portrait of a Nobleman
ca. 1830-40
marble
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan

Anonymous Venetian Artist
Head of a Man
ca. 1775
drawing
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan

Anonymous Roman Artist
Portrait of a Cleric
ca. 1660
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Italian Artist
Portrait of a Young Man
17th century
drawing
Princeton University Art Museum

Anonymous Venetian Artist
Portrait of a Man
ca. 1560
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Italian Artist
Portrait of a Nobleman
1556
terracotta
Milwaukee Art Museum

Anonymous Italian Artist
Portrait of a Man
ca. 1550
oil on panel
Galleria Nazionale di Parma

Anonymous Florentine Artist
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1540
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Italian Artist
Three Heads
ca. 1540
drawing
Yale University Art Gallery

Anonymous Milanese Artist
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1530-40
oil on panel
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Anonymous Venetian Artist
Portrait of a Young Man
ca. 1515
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

Anonymous Venetian Artist
Portrait Study of a Youth
ca. 1500
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Anonymous Italian Artist
Portrait of a Young Man
1472
oil on panel
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon

Anonymous Florentine Artist
Portrait of a Young Man
ca. 1430-50
tempera on panel
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

 from The Island of Statues

Have I not seen a thousand seasons ebb and flow
The tide of stars? Have I not seen a thousand years
The summers fling their scents? Ah, subtle and slow,
The warmth of life is chilling, and the shadows grow
More dark beneath the poplars, where yon owl
Lies torn and rotting. The fierce kestrel birds
Slew thee, poor sibyl: comrade thou and I;
For ah, our lives were but two starry words
Shouted a moment 'tween the earth and sky.
Oh, death is horrible! and foul, foul, foul!                              

– W.B. Yeats (1885)

Pictures of the Built World

Richard Phené Spiers
The Propylaea, Athens
ca. 1880
watercolor on paper
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Jean-Pierre Hoüel
Ruins of the Temple of Concord at Agrigento
ca. 1776
gouache on paper
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Photographer
Catherine Gide with her father André Gide at Paestum
1950
photograph
Fondation Catherine Gide, Olten, Switzerland

John Aldridge
Palazzo San Boldo, Venice
1963-64
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Michele Marieschi
Capriccio with Obelisk and Gothic Edifice
ca. 1740-45
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

James Holland
Venice - Narrow Canal
ca. 1840-50
oil on panel
The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery,
Stoke-on-Trent

Wilfrid De Glehn
Venetian Doorway
1913
oil on canvas
private collection

Jean-Baptiste Lallemand
Arch of Constantine and the Colosseum, Rome
ca. 1750
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Canaletto
Arch of Septimius Severus, Rome
ca. 1743
oil on canvas
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

Charles Michel-Ange Challe
Architectural Capriccio with the Roman Pantheon
ca. 1742-49
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Ferdinando Partini
View of the Pantheon, Rome
1794
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Hubert Robert
Bathers
ca. 1785
oil on canvas
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

Jenaro Pérez-Villaamil
Seville Cathedral
1835
oil on canvas
Fundación Banco Santander, Madrid

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Durham Cathedral
1798-99
watercolor
Royal Academy of Arts, London

William Strudwick
Water Gate of York House, London
before 1882
carbon print
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Charles Maresco Pearce
Le pavillon bleu
1926
oil on canvas
Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hull

Estrangement in Athens

Mount Olympus held nothing for them.
No occasion of theirs could provoke

Magniloquent debate. Nor act require

That attic of gods to come swooping

Onto the field, swaying the battle.

Only the great booming of the ferry

As it shouldered alongside the pier;

Only the waitress counting their

Saucers: it was this April morning

That swung them by their heels.

What was missing was the impersonal,

The fated, a visionary marble address,

The goddess skimming over blue water

To whisper good news, or some stud,

Swan, or bull brimming with light.

Not a wingèd foot. Only Love,

Recently decamped, hovered above

The table, ready to be splendid.

But their ten years' war had ended.

– Brian Culhane (2008)

Paintings on View in Venice

Gentile Bellini
Miracle of the Relic of the True Cross at Ponte di San Lorenzo
1500
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Benedetto Rusconi (il Diana)
Virgin and Child enthroned
with St Jerome, St Benedict, Mary Magdalen and St Justina of Padua
ca. 1515
oil on panel
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Giovanni Mansueti
St Mark healing Ananias
1516
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Marco Palmezzano
St John the Baptist in the Wilderness
before 1539
oil on panel
Pinacoteca Egidio Martini, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice

Giovanni Contarini
The Deposition
ca. 1575-1600
oil on canvas
Palazzo Grimani, Venice

Domenico Fetti and workshop
The Good Samaritan
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Giovanni Battista Langetti
Death of Cato
before 1676
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca Egidio Martini, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice

Giulio Carpioni
Bacchanal
before 1678
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca Egidio Martini, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice

Pietro della Vecchia
Soldiers playing Dice
before 1678
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca Egidio Martini, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice

Antonio Zanchi
Miracle of the Well
1679
oil on canvas
Scuola Grande dei Carmini, Venice

Nicola Grassi
Communion of St Bonaventure
before 1748
oil on canvas
Chiesa di San Francesco della Vigna, Venice

Pietro Longhi
Two Young Patricians Horseback-Riding
ca. 1755-60
oil on canvas
Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice

Gaspare Diziani
Putto sounding a Call to Arms
before 1767
oil on canvas
Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice

Vincenzo Giacomelli
Diomedes stealing the Palladium
1839
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Giorgio de Chirico
The Red Tower
1913
oil on canvas
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice

Francis Bacon
Study for a Chimpanzee
1957
oil and pastel on canvas
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice

from Macbeth in Venice

          11. Macbeth's Daughter Drowning

I'm most unchanging when I disappear.

A broken mirror is the soul's veneer

against the tidal groaning of the sea.

How could a daughter hope to interfere?

I'm most appealing when I disappear,

though most have paid a death to silence me. 

The plays are full of daughters – Hamlet, Lear,

but broken mirrors are the soul'd veneer

plunged deep into the blown glass of the sea.

I took this dagger as a souvenir.

I'm most persuasive when I disappear,

yet when I speak, there are no words for me.

The mute voice is the loveliest, I hear.

A broken mirror is the soul's veneer,

a city built upon the mirrored sea.

I wander through its drowning atmosphere.

I'm most impressive when I disappear,

though broken mirrors brought no luck to me.

A broken mirror is the soul's veneer.

– William Logan (1999)