My Favoritate Artwork at Ca' Pesaro, Venezia (Venice), Italy

Ca' Pesaro in Venice is known for its modern collections, including paintings by Gustav Klimt, Pierre Bonnard and Marc Chagall.  When I visited the museum, Klimt was not on display so I chose these two pieces as my favorites.

The sculpture "Cardinal" by Giacomo Manzù was a very striking piece.  From the front, it looked like a well formed symmetrical shrub, or an over-sized checkers piece, which definitely was nothing but simple and had multiple layers of meanings. The side view of the cardinal was an even more fascinating figure, which sat on an invisible seat, therefore gave the viewers a view of that support-less cardinal sloping down to the ground.  A political metaphor?


Cardinal by Giacomo Manzù



My other favorite was a still life painting, done with rich but not obsessive impasto, therefore a contrast and drama.  The humble subjects and narrow breadth of somber hues lent an overall feeling of austerity, deceptively so, because the painting was really rich of subtlety and interplay, such as the shape of a vase rack and its shadow on the wall in the center of the canvas.  The gradation of the shades was broad but subtle, and such tonal contrast generated another tense drama. The light and shadow almost added tangible movements to the absolute stillness of the piece. One could pulse the ticking clock underneath those layers of silent paints.



My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 110: My Favorite Sculptures at Musei Civici degli Eremitani, Padova (Padua)
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 108: My Favorite Artworks at Ca' d'Oro, Venezia (Venice)

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

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My Favorite Artworks at Ca' d'Oro, Venezia (Venice)

Almost every major old mansion, or Ca', as called by the locals, in Venice, are an impressive museum. Ca' d'Oro, is the most iconic of them all, famed for its Gothic columns, arched windows and fascinating asymmetrical façade, and it not only boast artifacts demonstrating the life in the begone era, it also houses some impressive artworks as well.





My favorite work my saw during my 2012 trip was a painting from the workshop of one of my favorite Renaissance artists, Andrea del Sarto, titled Madonna and Child with St. John, which had all the hallmarks of the said great master, particularly the pale green, blue and pink tones of draperies, and those rosy cheeked, plump figures announcing the advent of mannerism, which outgrew the naturalism of Renaissance.


Madonna and Child with St. John, Andrea del Sarto's Workshop, Ca' d'Oro

My second favorite was a sculpture of a nude male torso, which situated in the middle of a courtyard whose walls and floor were covered with very intricate and elaborate mosaic, and contrasting wonderfully against those complicated background with its restrained classical simplicity.

 

My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 109: My Favoritate Artwork at Ca' Pesaro, Venezia (Venice), Italy
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 107: My Favorite Artworks at Ca' Rezzonico, Venice

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My Favorite Artworks at Ca' Rezzonico, Venice

Venice has almost as many museums as its numerous Palazzi; one of these stately buildings stands along the Grand Canal is Ca' Rezzonico, whose art collections are fully in line with the peculiar tastes of the 18th century Venetians, decorative, precious, and a bit silly, but redeemed somewhat by whimsical playfulness and perhaps self-mockery.

The favorite piece I saw there was a fresco titled "Mondo Novo" by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, featuring vivid and even theatrical figures populating the streets in Venice, very much like those portrayed by the great Venetian Commedia dell'arte playwright Carlo Goldoni.



My second favorite was a bas-relief, Priamo chiede ad Achille (Priam Implores Achilles), a poignant and messy scene presented in restraint, manifested in those cleanly rendered classical lines:




My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 108: My Favorite Artworks at Ca' d'Oro, Venezia (Venice)
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 106: My Favorite Artworks at Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venezia (Venice)

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My Favorite Artworks at Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venezia (Venice)

Collezione Peggy Guggenheim (Peggy Guggenheim Collection), located in an unfinished 18th-century palace, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, boasts many modern masterpieces ranging in style from Cubism and Surrealism to Abstract Expressionism.

One of my favorite work there was a sculpture in the garden: The Cloven Viscount (Il visconte dimezzato) by Mimmo Paladino, which was simultaneously formal and fluid, familiar and strange, comforting and unsettling.  The figure, installed inside a small square brick confinement, in a small pile of gravels, was unassuming and even humble, but his intentionally stiff posture, resembling age-dried twigs, bore the traces of the ravage of time and wearying journey. 


The Cloven Viscount (Il visconte dimezzato), Mimmo Paladino, 1998

My second favorite work was a painting by Giogiro de Chirico, titled The Red Tower, in the typical style of the highly individual artist - subtly yet strikingly contrasting colors, enigmatic landscape and cityscape, opaque symbols and overwhelming sense of desolation and loneliness.  The focal point of the work, the Red Tower, was really a foreboding fortress squatting somewhat in the background, and held secrets the artists refused to divulge.

 
The Red Tower (La Tour rouge), Giorgio de Chirico, 1913


My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 107: My Favorite Artworks at Ca' Rezzonico, Venice
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 105: My Favorite Artifacts in Il Ghetto and Museo Ebraico (Jewish Museum) in Venice

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My Favorite Artifacts in Il Ghetto and Museo Ebraico (Jewish Museum) in Venice

Il Ghetto and Museo Ebraico (The Ghetto and Jewish Museum) in Venice were poignant places to visit and unsurprisingly, one of my favorite artifacts there was a series of reliefs mounted on the wall of the huge courtyard, depicting momentous experiences of the Jewish people: 



Another favorite of mine was an ancient map/landscape of a walled city (Jerusalem?) housed inside the museum. I was struck by the harmoniously interwoven pleasing blue and green tones throughout the lovely piece, and the stylized presentation of a city and its surrounding countryside.



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>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 106: My Favorite Artworks at Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venezia (Venice)
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My Favorite Paintings in Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice

A grand building in Venice, Scuola Grande di San Rocco, houses a huge cycle of paintings by Tintoretto, commissioned in 1564.  For next twenty-seven years, he and his assistants, including his son Domenico, created this opus magnum. From this cycle, I cite these two below as my favorites.

The first one is "The Annunciation" which depicted this familiar subject in a startlingly dramatic way and the dynamic momentum and the stark tonal contrast were overwhelming.


The Annunciation from the Tintoretto cycle, Image courtesy of Wikicommons by
Web Gallery of Art


The second one is "Miracle of the Bronze Serpent", which composition is even more dramatic. It told the story of the resentful Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt and God sent snakes to torment the hungry and thirsty people. Eventually they were compelled to go to Moses and asked him to pray to God for forgiveness. God dictated him to make a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: "and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live."

The small yet centrally positioned Moses and the miracle serpent occupied a small swatch of the canvas, filled with light, a small hope, perhaps; while the rest managed to emerge from dark shadows - limbs and bodies intertwined in the formation reminiscent of that of the serpent.  Unforgettable.


Miracle of the Bronze Serpent from the Tintoretto cycle, Image courtesy of Wikicommons by
Web Gallery of Art


My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 105: My Favorite Artifacts in Il Ghetto and Museo Ebraico (Jewish Museum) in Venice
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 103: My Favorite Painting & Sculptures in Il Redentore, Venezia

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My Favorite Paintings in Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venezia

The Church of San Giorgio Maggiore on the same-named island provided the most romantic view from Piazza di San Marco on the main island of Venice, with the its bell tower, echoing that in the center of the Piazza.

Beside being a focal point and a commanding place to view the teeming Piazza di San Marco, the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore also boasted some wonderful paintings.

My favorite painting was the vast Last Supper in the presbytery by the great Jacopo Tintoretto, which placed Jesus in the middle of darkness, whose mysterious halo mirrored the suspended lamp above, with the flaming in the shape the holy ghost.

On the left side of the painting, the people were better illuminated and they were sedated, quiet and dignified, while the people to the right were more shrouded in the darkness, and their postures were much more animated, dynamic and uncertain. Perhaps, due to age, the painting was quite murky but that added a foreboding atmosphere to this larger-than-life painting.


Last Supper by the great Jacopo Tintoretto



My second favorite was The Fall of Manna by the same artist.  The painting, mounted at the opposite side of the aisle, made a perfect companion piece to The Last Supper, even if not necessarily by design.

This large painting depicted the legend in a rather idyllic setting and atmosphere, an Arcadia, with people in classical costumes and poses, in exceeding dignity, collected Manna in a measured way. The coloration was more vivid, comparing the Last Supper, and the outdoor setting allowed the artist to give us a lovely landscape.  The painting might not be accurate but it was a wonderful work. 


The Fall of Manna by the great Jacopo Tintoretto




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My Favorite Artworks at Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute, Venezia

Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute in Venezia, though so-called a minor cathedral, due to its strategic location near the tip of Punta della Dogana, visible when entering the Piazza San Marco from the Grand Canal, was a natural stop for many visitors to the city. Its interior was relatively sparse, understated and unassuming, but that it didn't prevent Salute from accumulating some muted splendors.

Amongst several interesting and moving works, I cite these two as my favorites (below).

The one left me the strongest impression was an altar to Virgin Mary - centering on a brilliantly-painted ikon, a Byzantine Madonna and Child of the 12th or 13th century, known as Panagia Mesopantitissa in Greek ("Madonna the mediator" or "Madonna the negotiator"), framed by flowing baroque sculpture of the Queen of Heaven Expelling the Plague (1670), which was a theatrical Baroque masterpiece created by the Flemish sculptor Josse de Corte.  The colored painting and the bleached sculpture, the stiffness of the icon and the soft sensual line of the stone figures contrasted strongly and a sense of unexpected and fascinating surprise.





My second favorite was a painting by Titian, titled The Descent of the Holy Ghost. For modern eyes, his tableau might not be so ground-breaking; but at the time of its creation and aided with more vivid colors, the large altar piece must be breathtakingly impressive - the classical triangle composition, the seamless transition from the built columns to the painted arch, and finally the blindingly dizzying holy spirit crashing down from heaven, must be truly awe inspiring.




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>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 101: My Favorite Sculpture at Punta della Dogana
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 99: My Favorite Artwork at Piazza di San Marco

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Gondolas in Venice, Italy

In Venice, Italy, Gondolas have ubiquitous presences and are the most recognizable symbols of this lovely emerald city surrounded by lagoon and laced with the canals grand and small.  Those shining black leaf-shaped row boats, set off the green water and the pale marbled palazzi along the canals brilliantly.

Last October, when I visited Venice, naturally, I snapped many pictures of those flat-bottom, sharp-tipped boats traveling in the canal, lagoon, or mooring in the cove.

















One morning, one my way to the opera house, La Fenice, from Piazza San Marco, I stumbled upon a cove Agenzia Gondolieri Travel Bacino Orseolo, where gondolas parked overnight and it was quite a sight:






 








I particularly loved seeing those gondolas in the tranquil small waterways, strangely familiar and comforting.









The locals and brave tourists would cross the Grand Canal via a commuter gondola, Traghetto, standing:



Lastly, in front of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, I spotted in the Grand Canal a gondolier nonchalantly speaking on his cellular phone.  For us, gondolas were a thrilling novelty; for the locals, it was simply a way of life:





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Label: Italy, Austria and Italy Trip 2012