#VeniceBooks: Have You Ever Read a Book? Aldo Manuzio - Renaissance in Venice

Aldo Manuzio at the Accademia Gallery

(Venice, Italy) Have you ever read a book? If so, you can thank Aldus Manutius, the wizard who invented the modern book and the concept of publishing itself. Thanks to his innovation, Manutius helped to transform Venice into the publishing capital of the world during the Renaissance, revolutionizing the access of knowledge to the masses, similar to what the digital revolution has done for humanity today.

The long-anticipated exhibit Aldo Manuzio - Renaissance in Venice opened to the public last Saturday at the Accademia Gallery, and it is spectacular. After years of preparation, Renaissance in Venice focuses on some of the important players in the Veneto at a decisive moment in the development of humanity during the time of Aldo Manuzio.

Woven throughout the rare volumes of Aldine editions in the freshly-restored ground floor section of the Accademia are masterpieces and works by Manutius's contemporaries like Giorgione, Titian and Giovanni Bellini.

Le Cose Volgari by Petrarch - illuminated by Benedetto Bordon - published by Aldo Manuzio 1501

Two centuries before Aldo Manuzio arrived in Venice, Petrarch, inventor of the sonnet and the Father of Humanism himself, was in the lagoon from 1362 to 1367, invited with the specific intent of turning Venice into the greatest center of art, culture, and spirit of modern Europe.

Thanks to her relationship with the Eastern Empire, Venice already had a solid foot in both Hellenic and Greek culture. In 1345, Petrarch had discovered the lost collection of personal letters from the Roman statesman Cicero to the Greek statesman Atticus dating back to 68 BC. This discovery -- letters filled with a wealth of material between two distinguished men from antiquity, written in a deeply personal way -- blew Petrarch's mind, which many credit as kicking off the Renaissance. One passion the humanists had was to rediscover ancient Greek and Latin texts and apply the knowledge to their own time.

De Architecture by Vitruvius edited by Giovanni Giocondo, published by Giovanni Tacuino 1511

For example, one book included in the exhibition is the first illustrated edition of Vitruvius's De Architectura, originally written around 15 BC. In 1414, the Florentine humanist Poggio Bracciolini rediscovered the work without the illustrations in the Abbey of St. Gallen in Switzerland, and brought it to the attention of important Renaissance thinkers.

The world learned how the ancient Romans built stuff -- temples, civil and domestic buildings, aqueducts, central heating, etc., and how they planned their towns. Vitruvius declared that architecture should have three conditions: it should be sturdy, useful and beautiful. He also studied human proportions, inspiring Leonardo da Vinci to create Vitruvian Man, which is at the Accademia, but rarely shown to the public, and not part of the exhibition.

Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci (1490)

Giovanni Giocondo, who constructed the Fondaco dei Tedeschi in 1508 -- which is now in the process of morphing into a luxury shopping center at the foot of the Rialto Bridge designed by starchitect Rem Koolhass, due to open on October 1 -- edited the first illustrated edition of De Architecture published by Giovanni Tacuino in 1511, which introduced the knowledge of ancient temples to Venice.

The great architect Palladio (who would be deemed a super starchitect today) was deeply inspired by De Architecture, following the principles of classical Roman architecture based on mathematical proportions to construct his works. Palladio then wrote The Four Books of Architecture, published in Venice in 1570, which inspired architects all over the world, including Thomas Jefferson, who designed Monticello using the principles of Palladian architecture.

Accademia - Photo: Alessandra Chemollo Studio ORCH – courtesy Sop. per i BeniAmbientali e Architettonici di Venezia

That is just one example of how just one book can inspire great thinkers thousands of years after it was written.

Books like that can inspire an entire exhibition in 2016. The event itself, Aldo Manuzio - il rinascimento di Venezia, is staged in a building designed by Palladio, the monastery of the Canonici della Carità, built during the 1560s, which is part of the Accademia Gallery. 

Books like that can also inspire me to write a blog post on the Internet, which you are now reading, after I stepped foot into the Accademia and felt that mystical Palladian energy.

The printing press was invented in Germany by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, but Venice was where the publishing industry was born. The first printing press came to Venice in 1469. Soon hundreds of printers opened shop in Venice, an international, multicultural center of wealth, trade, literacy, banking, and freedom of expression. And it was teeming with humanists.

Aldo Manuzio, Latinized to Aldus Manutius, was born in 1449 in Bassiano, part of the Papal States. He had studied the classics, and then tutored the princes Alberto III and Lionello Pio of Carpi. His mission was to spread the Ancient Greek culture and its language.

Manuzio changed careers at the vintage age of 40, coming to Venice around 1490 at a time when the world was in crisis, with Europe at war with itself. Manuzio believed that the power of books were a way out of the bedlam. He hooked up with Andrea Torresano, a wealthy and well-known bookseller. Together they founded the Aldine Press in 1495 with 50% of the start-up capital coming from Pierfrancesco Barbarigo, a Venetian nobleman who was the son of the former Doge and nephew of the current Doge; 40% from Torresano, and 10% from Manuzio's own funds.

The Aldine Press began printing ancient Greek manuscripts in book form, which were very expensive to buy, targeting professional scholars. Manutius stood above the other printers. To him and his associates, printing a book was an art form. He hired the best translators and copy editors; he created that semi colon I just typed. The top craftsman illustrated his books.

Then Manuzio had the radical idea to produce smaller pocket-sized books that appealed to a broader audience, and to add punctuation marks, making books more user-friendly. He transformed the bulky handwritten codex into a mass-market pocket book that readers could carry with them wherever they went, allowing reading to become a pleasurable occupation.

The Aldine Press pocketbooks were a huge success, so much so that everybody started ripping off his idea despite the copyright protection that had been granted to him by the Venetian Republic. So he branded his books with a logo, the famous diving dolphin wrapped around an anchor, which was inspired by a Roman coin given to him by his friend Pietro Bembo, and meant "hasten slowly" or festina lente (and you can thank Manutius for inventing those italics). To this day, anyone involved in the publishing business understands what that means; it means quality.

Flora (Lucrezia Borgia?) by Bartolomeo Veneto (1505-10)

Pietro Bembo, who was a Venetian aristocrat, scholar and poet, was greatly responsible for reviving the works of Petrarch. He had a passionate love affair with the thrice-married Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI, while she was married to her third husband, the Duke of Ferrara. Lord Byron deemed the love letters between the two "the prettiest love letters in the world." The eye-catching Flora portrait is plastered all over Venice right now as advertisement for the exhibition.

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

The star of the show is the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a book that has fascinated mankind for centuries, and is considered by many to be the most beautiful Renaissance book. Published by Manutius in 1499, the hero, Poliphilo, falls asleep and dreams of finding his beloved Polia.

According to the stunning catalogue published by Marsilio that accompanies the exhibition, 'In a quest full of dangers and "labors," he flees from monsters and fierce beasts, sees marvelous architecture, takes part in occult rituals and is forced to choose between three doors with descriptions in Greek, Hebrew and Latin.'

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili illustration

There are 170 top quality woodcut prints that complement the text, whose author is not explicitly referred to in the book, but if you join up the first letters of each of the 38 chapters, it says "Francesco Colonna greatly loved Polia."

Colonna was a Dominican monk who lived in Venice and Treviso, but much like the real identity of William Shakespeare, the authorship of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili is a topic of debate. Nor is the identity of the artist of the woodcuts known, and has been attributed to a variety of celebrated artists, or a team of illustrators.

Portrait of Eramus by Quinten Massys (1517)

The international renown of Manuzio prompted Eramus of Rotterdam, one of the greatest European humanists, to make the trip to Venice in 1507 to have his Latin translations of Euripides' Ihigenia at Aulis and Hecuba printed by the Aldine Press, which was promptly done.

Portrait of a Gentleman (Jacopo Sannazaro?) by Titian (1514-18)

Reading became all the rage, and the nobility started having portraits of themselves painted holding a book. The "pocketbook classic" became a status symbol and everybody who was anybody in the Italian and European elite had to have them. Small and easily transportable, you could read them anywhere; it was an exciting novelty, much like owning an iPhone is today.

In his introduction to Aristotle in November 1495, Aldo Manuzio wrote:

"It is our lot to live in turbid, tragic and tumultuous times when men more commonly turn to arms than books; and yet I shall have no rest until I have created a plentiful supply of good books."

Five hundred years later, we can be sure that Aldus Manutius achieved his goal.

Aldo Manuzio. Il rinascimento di Venezia runs through June 19, 2016 at the Gallerie dell'Accademia.

This post is dedicated to the spirit of Christopher Cooley, who would have loved the exhibition and brought home lots of postcards and brochures. For those of you who knew him, his death is in the New York Times. May all the truth come out. The world has lost another good man. Rest with the angels, my friend.

Ciao from Venezia,
#VeniceBooks
Cat Bauer
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

When Noah Got Drunk - Giovanni Bellini at Correr in Venice

Drunkenness of Noah by Giovanni Bellini (c.1515)

(Venice, Italy) When I first saw Giovanni Bellini's painting, the Drunkenness of Noah at the Correr Museum last week, I had never heard of the pivotal Biblical story about Noah getting drunk. My knowledge of Noah was from childhood Bedtime Bible Stories, and stopped when the Ark hit dry land and God sent in the rainbow.

I found the painting riveting and disturbing. It inspired me to study up on the event, which is recorded in Genesis 9:20-23. Apparently after surviving the mass extinction of mankind because God had decided His creation was too evil and decided to destroy it -- all but Noah and his family, and the animals -- one of Noah's sons, Ham, started the whole thing up again.

Noah gets drunk and passes out, naked in his tent. Ham sees the naked Noah, and dashes out to find his two older brothers, Japheth and Shem, who bring a garment to cover their father while averting their eyes. Ham, however, thinks the whole scene is hilarious. Noah comes out of his drunken stupor and learns "what his youngest son had done to him". Noah then curses his own grandson, Ham's son, Canaan, declaring that he shall be the lowest of slaves to his brothers.

All sorts of Biblical scholars have all sorts of theories about what this means. Did Ham sodomize his father in order to become the alpha male of the family? Did he castrate him? Or did he just think seeing his father naked was funny? And why did Noah curse Canaan, not Ham? If Noah and his family were the best bunch of humans that God could find to save mankind, it really makes you wonder what evil-doings the rest of humanity were up to!

The passage takes place right after God makes the rainbow covenant and the family exists the ark:

[9:18] The sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.
[9:19] These three were the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was peopled.
[9:20] Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard.
[9:21] He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in his tent.
[9:22] And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.
[9:23] Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness.
[9:24] When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him,
[9:25] he said, "Cursed be Canaan; lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers."
[9:26] He also said, "Blessed by the LORD my God be Shem; and let Canaan be his slave.
[9:27] May God make space for Japheth, and let him live in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his slave."
[9:28] After the flood Noah lived three hundred fifty years.
[9:29] All the days of Noah were nine hundred fifty years; and he died.

According to the press notes, "This family drama is interpreted as the reinstatement of a hierarchical order among the survivors of the purifying flood, the cause of and justification for inequality among the descendants of the three sons."

The Bible says all the people of the earth descended from Noah's three sons. Biblical scholars disagree about almost everything in the text, even the order of birth of the sons, but very simply, Shem was the father of the Semitic people, the people of Asia; Japheth was the father of the Japhetic people, the people of Europe; and Ham was the father of the Hamitic people of Africa. Throughout history, Noah's curse on Canaan was used to justify slavery.

Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie© Jean-Louis Dousson, Ville de Besançon

Bellini's Drunkenness of Noah is considered a masterpiece, but even the painting itself is shrouded in mystery. Painted in Venice around 1515 when Bellini was 85-years-old, the work was first mentioned in 1895 in the inventory compiled after the death of Jean Gigoux, the collector who had discovered it and bequested it to the to the Musée des Beaux-Arts, the Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology in Besançon, France's oldest public museum. Where it had been for the previous four hundred years is not known, nor were scholars sure it was by Giovanni Bellini. It is now believed to be his last painting, and, in 1956, was called by the art critic Roberto Longhi "the first work of modern painting."

Even though Bellini was very old, he assimilated the revolution of the younger painters in the Venice at the time, particularly his pupil Giorgione, who had died young in 1510. The Drunkenness of Noah was a rare theme, and the only one from the Old Testament to inspire the elderly master.

A Masterpiece for Venice: The Drunkenness of Noah is the first project in a series this year that celebrates the 500th anniversary of the death of Giovanni Bellini, and can be seen in the Salle delle Quattro Porte inside the Correr Museum, where it is on loan from the Musée des Beaux-Arts until June 18.

UPDATE August 2, 2016 - The Drunkenness of Noah is now part of the Venice, the Jews and Europe 1516-2016 exhibition currently running in the Doge's Apartments at Palazzo Ducale through November 13, 2016. Thank you to reader Rudidement for pointing that out, and for the fascinating theory that, perhaps, Bellini was inspired to paint the controversial subject by the three younger painters nipping at his heels, Giorgione, Sebastiano and Titian. (See the discussion in the comments, below.)

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

News from Rialto - Gondoliers of Venice Go Global

Emilio Ceccato - Gondolier Headquarters at the Rialto Bridge

(Venice, Italy) In this rapidly spinning world, it is difficult to maintain a presence when your business has existed for more than a 1,000 years. Really, it gets exhausting, trying to keep up with contemporary trends when your origins began more than a millennium ago! But the gondoliers of Venice are giving it a shot.

Thanks to Emilio Ceccato, a Venetian clothing brand that has been around since 1902, the gondoliers of Venice now have their own official line of clothing -- which you can buy, too. A percentage of all the proceeds is invested in supporting the ancient gondolier tradition, ensuring that one of Venice's most-beloved symbols remains alive and well.

Although Venice's gondoliers have been around for more than 1,000 years, they never before had their own official line of clothing. Now, each gondolier will receive one full uniform each year for free from Emilio Ceccato.

The logo incorporates the symbols of Venice in one unique design: the winged Lion of San Marco holds an open book, which symbolizes peace. On either side is the ferro, the metal design found on the prow of the gondola that represents the six different sestieri, or districts, of Venice. .

On Thursday, February 25, the Emilio Ceccato Group presented the Gondoliers Association, which represents Venice's 433 gondoliers, with a check for €1,500, a deposit towards the first project they are undertaking together -- they will build two new "Gondolone" to transport people across the Grand Canal. Not only will the Comune of Venice get a couple of much-needed boats, it will also provide work for the squero, the shipyard where one gondola is already under construction.

Traghetto at the Rialto Vegetable Market

The Gondolone, or barchetta da parada, is broader and flatter than a traditional gondola, so that up to 14 people can ride across the Grand Canal at the same time. The public service is extremely convenient, especially when you simply do not have the time or energy to go all the way to one of Venice's four bridges to cross the Grand Canal. Instead, you hop into the traghetto, and let the gondoliers whisk you across the canal. The boat is steered by two gondoliers, one in the front, and one in the back. Most people ride standing up, but you can perch along the edges if your sea legs are wobbly.

Even the Americans are showing their support. This is from Kathleen Kennedy Townsend:

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend on Emilio Ceccato Facebook page

"The Gondoliers are the symbol of #Venice -- heroic, able to master the winds, the tides, the tiny canals, and the masses of tourists --all with skill, talent and grace. Each Gondolier -- handsome in his striped shirt -- makes each visitor feel that they could have been part of the magnificent Venetian past which brought treasures from across the globe on fast ships, created a culture which stood up to Rome, and made science and art its mark.

Now the Gondoliers Association will continue to contribute to the city of Venice through this first of its kind bond with the Emilio Ceccato group. These special Venetians will help their magical city not only through their trade but by directing the brand royalties toward projects which safeguard their trade and those artisan trades which surround the gondola and the Venetian rowing style, traditions which keep Venice vibrant."

Gondola Greg at Emilio Ceccato on Facebook

Greg Mohr, President of the Gondola Society of America (did you know there was such a thing?) and author of The Gondola Blog, has draped his staff in official Emilio Ceccato striped shirts:

Ciao Alberto!
As President of the Gondola Society of America,
and host of the 2015 US Gondola Nationals,
I support the Associazione Gondolieri of Venezia.

During the awards ceremony of the US Gondola Nationals, I had the opportunity to tell all fifty competitors about your association.
In addition, I presented an Associazione Gondolieri patch to the owner or representative of each of the twelve gondola companies participating.
Thank you for producing high quality clothing for gondoliers – all my staff in Newport Beach and Texas wear Emilio Ceccato striped shirts.
Saluti from California,
Greg Mohr

EmilioCeccato.com

The Emilio Ceccato shop is located at the foot of the Rialto Bridge on the San Polo side, and has been completely restored, with original brick and piles. There is even a column inside that seems to be holding up the Rialto Bridge(!) They sell official, high-quality gondolier-wear -- T-shirts, sweatshirts, the famous straw hats, wool caps, baseball caps, winter vests, sweaters, pants and more, and the royalties from each item will be invested in projects that safeguard the gondoliers, as well all the artisan trades that that support the gondola and Venetian rowing, like the people who make the oars, the ferro, and the forcola, or oarlock, as well as investing in apprenticeship programs.

If you can't make it to Venice, you can always shop online at Emilio Ceccato. Not only will you have your own unique piece of Venice, you will be helping to keep one of Venice's oldest traditions alive. 

Ciao from Venezia, 
Cat 
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

Reporting from the Front - Biennale Architecture 2016

G. Marini, Rolex; Paolo Baratta, Pres. Biennale; Alejandro Aravena - Photo: Cat Bauer

(Venice, Italy) Alejandro Aravena, the curator of Biennale's 15th International Architecture Exhibition, is on a roll. In addition to directing one of the world's most prestigious get-togethers in the world of architecture, the 48-year-old Chilean won the Pritzker Prize last month, architecture's highest award.

The image that has inspired Aravena for REPORTING FROM THE FRONT is that of an old woman standing on an aluminum ladder in the middle of the desert. Aravena related: "In his trip to South America [the English writer] Bruce Chatwin encountered an old lady walking through the desert carrying an aluminum ladder on her shoulder. It was German archaeologist Maria Reiche studying the Nazca Lines. Standing on the ground, the stones did not make any sense; they were just random gravel. But from the height of the stair, those stones became a bird, a jaguar, a tree or a flower."

Phoenix - Nazca Lines

We've all seen Discovery programs about mysterious designs and patterns that can only be recognized from the air. The Nazca Lines are large geoglyphs, or designs, in southern Peru, created by the Nazca culture between 500 BC and 500 AD. Hundreds of etchings were created by making shallow furrows in the ground, removing rust-colored pebbles and exposing the whitish ground beneath. Because the climate in the desert is relatively stable, the Nazca Lines have been naturally preserved for centuries.

Maria Reiche (1903-1998), a German mathematician and archaeologist, dedicated her life to the Nazca Lines. She would go out with a broom and sweep off the small dark pebbles to make the designs more accessible for viewing while the local population laughed at the woman who was "cleaning the desert." For 50 years, the "Lady of the Lines" fought with a passion to preserve the Nazca Lines, living in a small house near the desert so she could keep reckless visitors at bay.

Today, nobody is certain what the Nazca Lines signify, although, of course, there is an alien theory. Reiche herself believed the ancient people used the alignment of the drawings with the sun as a calendar for agricultural purposes, among other reasons. "This would explain the fact that drawing activity was done to preserve knowledge, the knowledge that humanity has garnered over hundreds and thousands of years for the practical purpose of survival."

Alejandro Averena - Photo: Giorgio Zuchiatti - courtesy Biennale

Alejandro Averena stated: "We would like the Biennale Architettura 2016 to offer a new point of view like the one Maria Reiche has on the ladder. Given the complexity and variety of challenges that architecture has to respond to, REPORTING FROM THE FRONT will be about listening to those that were able to gain some perspective, and, consequently, are in the position to share some knowledge and experiences with those of us standing on the ground.

...REPORTING FROM THE FRONT will be about sharing with a broader audience the work of people that are scrutinizing the horizon looking for new fields of action, facing issues like segregation, inequalities, peripheries, access to sanitation, natural disasters, housing shortage, migration, informality, crime, traffic, waste, pollution and participation of communities. ..."

This year's Architecture Biennale is going to be one enormous show, stretching from the Central Pavilion in Giardini over to the Arsenale, and will include 88 participants from 37 different countries, 50 of them participating for the first time, with 33 architects under the age of 40.

REPORTING FROM THE FRONT opens to the public on May 28, and runs through November 27, 2016. Go to Biennale for more information.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

Venice Carnival 2016 - The Conclusion... with Photos!

End of Venice Carnival 2016 - Photo: Cat Bauer

(Venice, Italy) The Carnival of Venice closed yesterday as an enormous Venetian flag soared its way to the top of the Campanile, a purple sky dramatic in the background.

Masked revelers in front of the Florian Caffè . Venice Carnival 2016 - Photo: Cat Bauer

This year, the carnival theme was "Creatum," with new artistic director, Marco Maccapani, at the helm. Maccapani has a wealth of experience directing events in the fashion industry -- he was once married to Angela Missoni -- and aimed to create a carnival that both residents and tourists could enjoy.

Mask Making - Venice Carnival 2016 - Photo: Cat Bauer

Instead of an imposing stage that separated visitors from performers, smaller sets were scattered throughout Piazza San Marco, highlighting the traditions that Venice does best: glass blowing, mask making, costumes, fabrics -- even a gondola was in the square.

Gondola in Piazza San Marco - Photo: Cat Bauer

Venice is a strange enough place to live under ordinary conditions. During Carnival, it becomes surreal, trying to do everyday activities with all sorts of colorful creatures moving through the streets.

Venice Carnival 2016 - Photo Cat Bauer

The liberation that grown adults get by dressing up in costumes and striking poses never seems to lose its appeal.

Plague doctor - Venice Carnival - Photo: Cat Bauer

A favorite costume is that of the Plague Doctor, which was an outfit that doctors actually wore to treat victims of the plague. The beak-like mask was stuffed with scented materials like myrrh, mint, cloves and camphor to protect them against a poisonous vapor or "miasma" believed to spread disease through the air. Straw was used as a filter.

Live Commedia dell'arte in Piazza San Marco - Photo: Cat Bauer

Stivalaccio Teatro performed L'Arlecchino Furioso in the square, riveting the audience with their wild antics, and giving them a taste of some good old-fashioned Commedia dell'arte.

BrassOperà - Photo: Cat Bauer

La Fenice Opera Theatre presented BrassOperà, serenading the square with La Traviata and more.

Cocktails from Harry's Bar - Photo: Cat Bauer

Harry's Bar served cocktails to the crowd.

Venice Carnival 2016 - Photo: Cat Bauer

Throughout the carnival, the mood was light and festive, well-organized and secure. It was nice to know in these days when the international community seems permeated with fear, that folks can still come out and play in the most beautiful drawing room in the world.

Through the window of the Florian - Reflection or Reality? Photo: Cat Bauer

During Venice Carnival, the curtain dividing the past from the present, the real from the imagined becomes more transparent. And anyone can use their imagination to become whatever they dream they can be.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

 

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Venice Carnival - Through the Window of the Florian...

Through the window of the Florian - Photo: Cat Bauer

(Venice, Italy) Caffè Florian in Piazza San Marco is the oldest coffeehouse in all of Italy. Depending on how you define "coffeehouse," it can also claim to be one of the oldest in all the world. Established on December 29, 1720, for nearly 300 years the Florian has always attracted an international crowd.

Through the window of the Florian - Photo: Cat Bauer

Notable Venetians like Carlo Goldoni and Casanova were early patrons -- it was the only cafe that served women. As time went on, artsy notables like Lord Byron, Goethe, Marcel Proust and Charles Dickens dropped by, as well as Richard Wagner and D'Annunzio.

Through the window of the Florian - Photo: Cat Bauer

Caffè Florian's original name was "Venezia Trionfante," or "Triumphant Venice," and was a place where history was written. Inside its rooms, plots were hatched to overthrow French and Austrian rule.

Through the Window of the Florian - Photo: Cat Bauer

It was at the Florian that plans to create the first Venice Art Biennale were dreamed up. In 1893, Riccardo Selvatico, the mayor of Venice, together with a group of artists and intellectuals, decided to hold an illustrious art exhibition in honor of the silver anniversary of King Umberto and Margherita of Savoy.

Beneath the paintings of The Age of Enlightenment and Civilization Educating the Nations in the Senate Room, the idea for the first international art festival in the world was born.

Through the Window of the Florian - Photo: Cat Bauer

These days, during Carnival, all sorts of colorful creatures dress the part and sit down at the tables of the Florian to take their place with the phantoms of history.

With portraits of giants like Titian, Palladio and Marco Polo on the wall, Caffè Florian brings the glories of Venice's past into Venetian life today. And during Carnival, the veil that separates space and time seems to fade away...

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

Why is the Venice Carnival so Early this Year? + Four Concurrent Press Conferences

Venice Carnival 2016 Opens - Photo: Cat Bauer

(Venice, Italy) The 2016 Carnival of Venice is early this year, starting today, January 23, the Eve of the Full Moon, and running through February 7, Mardi Gras -- French for "Fat Tuesday," the day before Lent begins. Why is it so early?

The date depends on Easter, which is a moveable feast, celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon that occurs on or after the March Equinox. This year, that full moon is on March 23, so it means Easter will be on Sunday, March 27. Ash Wednesday occurs exactly 46 days before Easter -- 40 fasting days not counting Sundays -- which will be February 10th this year.  Which means that Mardi Gras, the last night to get crazy before the fasting begins, is on February 9th. Got all that?

Journalists were flying all around Venice yesterday on their magic carpets, since there were four press conferences scheduled at the same time:

1. VENICE BIENNALE 7TH INTERNATIONAL KID'S CARNIVAL

Venice Biennale 7th International Kid's Carnival

GIRO GIRO TONDO - Around the World is the theme of La Biennale's 7th International Kid's Carnival, which runs from January 30 to February 7th. Giro Giro Tondo is the Italian version of Ring Around the Rosie, a puzzling children's song that is found in many different cultures throughout the centuries. This year the Kid's Carnival moves back down to the Giardini, packed with fun-filled, educational activities for children and their grownups. Music, workshops, costume-making and much, much more are on the program, which you can see here. And it's all free!

2. MURANO GLASS MUSEUM

A Light for Emilia-Romagna - Photo: Consorzio Promovetro Murano

A Light for Emilia-Romagna - The Sant'Agostino Chandeliers is an exhibition at the Murano Glass Museum that runs from January 23 to February 28. In May, 2012, Emilia-Romagna, a region of Northern Italy whose capital is Bologna, was hit by an earthquake that caused death and destruction. Four magnificent chandeliers in the small town of Sant'Agostino survived the quake; the largest one was over 16 feet tall, magnificent in crystal gold and amber.

The Consorzio Promovetro of Murano decided to use their expertise to help their friends in the neighboring region, and transferred the chandeliers from Ferrara to Murano (with a lot of help from all sorts of Italian powers), where they have been lovingly restored over the last three years. Luciano Gambaro, President of the Murano Glass Promotion Consortium Promoverto said, "It is a great joy for us to use our professionalism to help the population of Emilia-Romagna that has suffered so much. These chandeliers have become a symbol to them because they survived the earthquake despite their fragility." Teatro La Fenice curated the design, and Venetian author Alberto Toso Fei curated the book that accompanies the exhibition.

3. CASA DEI TRE OCI

Alice's Looking Glass - Maurizio Trifilidis

Tre Oci Tre Mostre is three different photo exhibitions running from January 23 to March 28 at the Casa dei Tre Oci on Giudecca, a venue devoted to photography. La Gondola photographic club rules the ground floor, and divides its own exhibition into three: photos inspired by the title of Lewis Carroll's Alice Through the  Looking Glass; NeroSuBianco (Black on White) curated by Manfredo Manfroi, Italian photography in the decade from 1950-60; and the winners of the 2015 Sguadi Femminili portfolio.

Next, on the first floor, are 75 images of Venice by Roberto Polillo, and on the second floor is Giulio Obici's Il Flâneur Detective. A flâneur is someone who walks the streets, observing the life around him. Giulio Obici (1934-2011) was a columnist and special correspondent who investigated terrorism in Italy, whose short novels were published posthumously in 2015. The photos on display are sort of like an author's notes which were photographed instead of written. 

4. PEGGY GUGGENHEIM COLLECTION

Portrait of Zoe Sharkey by Jack Tworkov (1948)

Postwar Era. A Recent History - Homages to Jack Tworkov and Claire Falkenstein is running at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection from January 23 to April 4. Curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, a bunch of loot from Peggy's collection and donations to the Foundation is "assembled in clusters and arranged according to theme, style, affinity, and an unconventional chronology."

I fell in love with Claire Falkenstein (1908-1997), an American artist who created esoteric structures that seemed to be born in outer space. Anyone who has entered the Peggy Guggenheim Collection from the side gate already knows her work, The New Gates of Paradise, made from welded iron rods and colorful chunks of Venetian glass.

The New Gates of Paradise by Claire Falkenstein (1980-97) Photo: Cat Bauer

Stay tuned for more on the 2016 Venice Carnevale.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

A Menagerie of Wonders Closes in Venice - The Ancient Roman Lod Mosaic: Next Stop, Miami

The Lod Mosaic

(Venice, Italy) Almost 2000 years ago, the finest in ancient Rome home decoration included mosaic floors. Here in Venice, we were fortunate enough to get a gander at the marvelous Ancient Roman Lod Mosaic during A Menagerie of Wonders at the Giorgio Cini Foundation on the Island of San Giorgio, which closed today.

The Lod Mosaic - Photo: Cat Bauer

When the city of Lod in Israel was doing road work back in 1996, they stumbled upon a large, colorful mosaic floor decorated with lions and fish, elephants and birds, Roman ships and plants. The ancient floor, dating back to the late 3rd/early 4th centuries, was in beautiful condition, and it was decided to give it a permanent home. Thanks to the Leon Levy Foundation and Shelby White, president of the Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority, the creation of the Lod Mosaic Archaeological Center is now underway, due to open in 2017.

The Lod Mosaic - Photo: Cat Bauer

The current Israeli town of Lod is on the site of the ancient city of Lydda, St. George's hometown, and was an important trade route. A center of culture and craft production, Lydda was destroyed by the Romans in AD 66 during the First Jewish-Roman War, and rebuilt as Diospolis, the City of Zeus.

They are still trying to figure out why exotic animals, probably unknown to the region, are on the mosaic. One theory is they were imported from Africa on merchant ships, possibly for combat in the amphitheaters.

The Lod Mosaic - Photo: Cat Bauer

While the Lod Mosaic Archaeological Center is being constructed, the superstar floor set off on an international tour and was displayed in some major venues: the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Louvre in Paris, the Altes Museum in Berlin, Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, UK and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, as well as here in Venice at the Cini Foundation.

Next the fabulous floor is traveling to The Patricia & Philip Frost Art Museum in Miami, Florida from February 11 to March 15, 2016, after which it will make its way back to its new home in Lod.

For more information, go to The Lod Mosaic.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog