My Favorite Paintings at Galleria dell'Accademia, Venezia (Venice Academy)

My second day trip from Firenze (Florence) was to Venezia (Venice). This is much more challenging than a trip to Sienna, due to the much longer distance between the cities, and the fact that Venice had much more to offer than Sienna.

We departed by train in the early morning and near mid-day, we arrived at Venice.  We spent a decently short time to marvel at the canals and the took river taxi (much cheaper than gondola) to the St Marco Square and saw the amazing Romanesque cathedral.  Afterwards, we marched through the intricate alleys, canals and bridges, in order to spend some time at Galleria dell'Accademia, Venice (Venice Academy).

My main goal was to inspect and admire two incredible Venice School paintings, along side wit many other wonderful works.  But these two pieces were indeed my main goal.

One was "Tempest" by Giorgione. Perhaps, this one is even more mysterious and intriguing than the more famous "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo Da Vinci. This painting was full of symbols whose meanings largely lost to modern minds.  On its foreground, on the left, was a young man in fanciful dress, not quite a knight but not your common city or country folks either.  He gazed at the far right, but not at the woman sitting in the bush, nursing her baby.  She looked towards the left, but not quite at the young man either.  Most mysterious element was that she had only some short cape over her should and completely nude down below.  She seemed sitting on the rest of her clothes.  The background was a city/country scene rather reminiscent of more medieval Sienna.  Above the cityscape, lightening flashed across stormy sky, in the same lovely green/blue hue, which actually was the signature of Giorgione to me.

In regardless whatever the symbolism this painting held, it was a lovely painting, with charged dramatic gestures and held the viewers in complete enthrallment.


United States public domain tag

My second focus was an incredibly ambitious painting by Paolo Veronese, "The Feast in the House of Levi", with measuring of 555 x 1280 cm (18 x 42 feet).  It was ambitious, showy, and bursting with activities in a feast and splendid colors, dominated by various hues of red and green/yellow.  It was indeed that the Venice School paintings were most excelled in their amazing colors.  The way Veronese painted many sorts of fabrics was truly virtuosic as well.  The tableau of the feasting table, was quite similar to the "Last Supper" by Da Vinci, again.  No artist had monopoly on ideas. The overall composition was quite solemn, befitting to its biblical theme and the monumental size, with activities framed under immense classical arches, and contrasted with somewhat menacing sky, and enlivened by the aforementioned activities and lively colors.  

This was a very stagey tableau and it sheer immensity made it a marvel to see. 


Wikipedia Commons, source: Ghirlandajo


My Favorite Museum Collection Series
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List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited

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