Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
In 2000, when I visited Rome and Florence, I made a seemingly silly day trip from Florence to Venice, specifically to visit Gallerie dell'Accademia in order to see two of my favorite paintings there - the intimate and enigmatic Tempest by Giorgione and Paolo Veronese's immense and celebratory The Feast in the House of Levi, along with others. The trip to Venice was quite rushed but the visit to the museum and admiring those paintings below were truly gratifying.
Tempest, Giorgione, Wikipedia Commons, source: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/g/giorgione/tempest.jpg
The Feast in the House of Levi", Paolo Veronese, Wikipedia Commons, source: Ghirlandajo
In October 2012, Venice was one of my major stop of my Austrian and Italian trip, thus afforded me more time to visit Gallerie dell'Accademia and I was looking forward to re-exam those two favorites. However, it didn't happen as planned -- a huge scaffolding largely blocked out The Feast in the House of Levi! My consolation was that I did see it twelve years before and that proved the motto of "Seize the day".
I was able to see Giorgione's Tempest, along with his La Vecchia (below), a portrait of startlingly modern sensitivity.
La Vecchia, Giorgione, Gallerie dell'Accademia
I also love Lorenzo Lotto's portraits, such as this "Portrait of a Gentleman in His Study" (c1527):
Vittore Carpaccio's (1497-98) cycle of Legend of S. Ursula was particularly intriguing and interesting to me:
Arrival of the Ambassadors, Legend of S. Ursula, Vittore Carpaccio, 1497-98
Departure of the Ambassadors, Legend of S. Ursula, Vittore Carpaccio, 1497-98
Gallerie dell'Accademia was a venerable ancient institution and paintings collected there were too numerous to record and describe properly here so I chose the paintings below, which formed a rough cycle of Jesus's life, all by remarkable painters with great felicity.
Giovanni Bellini, Gallerie dell'Accademia
John the Baptist, Titian, c. 1542, Gallerie dell'Accademia
Pietà, Titian, 1575, Gallerie dell'Accademia
Tiopolo, Gallerie dell'Accademia
The other museum in Venice whose main attraction was the art collection, other than sumptuous palaces and ancient artifacts, was a museum dedicated to 20th century's works, Collezione Peggy Guggenheim (Peggy Guggenheim Collection), housed in Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, an unfinished 18th century Grand Canal palace, which was both quirky and iconic.
The unfinished palazzo was quite charming with great view of the Grand Canal from inside the museum.
It had some interesting sculptures, mostly in front of the palazzo and inside the courtyard, and the most memorable one perhaps was the giggle-inducing The Angel of the City by Marino Marini, 1948.
The Angel of the City, Marino Marini, 1948 (left) and Surface devéloppable, Antoine Persner (right)
Chariot, Fritz Koening, 1957 (left) and Tauromachy (Tauromachie), Germaine Richier, 1953 (right)
The Cloven Viscount (Il visconte dimezzato), Mimmo Paladino, 1998
The museum was crowded with early 20th century works by many famed painters, and apparently the collection hadn't stopped it growth. While browsing, the fame of the museum felt a bit over-rated; yet, once I started to look back, the huge array of talents on display there was quite astonishingly rich. Below are a selection of my favorites, listed in chronological order:
Rain (La Pluie), Marc Chagall, 1911
The Red Tower (La Tour rouge), Giorgio de Chirico, 1913
The Cyclist (Il ciclista), Mario Sironi, 1916
Composition with Propeller (Composizione con elica), Mario Sironi, 1919
The Engineer’s Mistress (L’amante dell’ingegnere), Carrà Carlo, 1921
Painting, Joan Miró, 1925
Magic Garden (Zaubergarten), Paul Klee, March 1926
The Bowl of Grapes (Le Compotier de raisins), Georges Barque, 1926
The Kiss, Max Ernst, 1927
La Baignade, Pablo Picasso, 1937
Untitled, Henry Moore, 1937
Untitled, Franz Kline, 1951
Consciousness of Shock, Victor Brauner, 1951
Untitled, Willem de Kooning, 1958
Untitled, Cy Twombly, 1967
Study #5, Brice Marden, 1976
In this extremely crowded museum, the staff even managed to find space for special exhibit. When we visited the museum, there was an interesting retrospective, Capogrossi Retrospective, showcasing the legacy of Giuseppe Capogrossi (1900 Rome -1972 Rome), whose work ranged from stylized and slightly abstract figurative paintings of the early years, to the calligraphy influenced purely abstract works of his later years. I didn't know much about this artist and gladly made an acquaintance of him in his native Italy.
Giuseppe Capogrossi, Capogrossi Retrospective (left) and Superficle 317, Giuseppe Capogrossi, 1959, Capogrossi Retrospective (right)
Superficle series, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Capogrossi Retrospective
Superficle 122, Giuseppe Capogrossi, 1951
Coda:
Speaking of missed opportunities, I did miss a chance to fully appreciate the famous Titian's Assumption of the Virgin, which was also partially hidden by scaffolding inside the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. This perhaps called for another trip back to Venice.
Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari
Titian's Assumption of the Virgin
Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Famed Palaces and Houses (Ca') in Venice
- Il Ghetto di Venezia and Museo Ebraico (Jewish Museum) in Venice
- Bridges in Venice, Italy
- San Giorgio Maggiore, Il Redentore, Scuola e Chise Grande di San Rocco, Venezia
- Magical Piazza San Marco in Venice
- Teatro La Fenice di Venezia (La Fenice Theatre in Venice)
- Boy With Frog Sculpture and Punta della Dogana, Venice
- My Favorite Paintings at Galleria dell'Accademia, Venezia (Venice Academy)
Label: Italy, Austria and Italy Trip 2012
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