Venice and the Jews 1516-2016

Fabulous exhibition at the Doge’s Palace in Venice marking 500 years since the formation of the Ghetto in Venice.

It was fascinating to realise that when the Ghetto was formed it was just an area given to the Jewish population of Venice as other areas were given to other nationalities. The area was then named after the furnaces (geto) which had been there before. The word has obviously grown to take on darker meaning and things were not always as easy in the Venetian Ghetto as when it was founded.

There was a wonderful room of paintings from the time of the founding showing how Jews were viewed in society. This included three by one of my favourite artists Carpaccio. I loved his portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan who founded the Ghetto.

There was also a great room of sketches and plans of the buildings and a great AV presentation of a walk through the streets which stopped at the site of the buildings whose plans you had just been looking at many of which still existed.

I knew very little about the occupation of Venice by Napoleon except that he pinched a lot of art but was interested to see that he also burnt the gate of the Ghetto and liberated the population after a more restrictive period in its history. There was also a good section looking at the most famous work about the Ghetto “The Merchant of Venice” featuring different performances and talking about how it is performed often reflects the thinking of the time.

I thought there was great used of AV in the show. It all worked which is a miracle and it really added to the experience. There was just one room where the AV only seemed to be in Italian and the other explanations in the room were a bit sketchy. I do want a small moan about putting the labels by the objects. There were good explanations but these were often at the other end of the room and it took a bit of working out as to which label applied to which item.

Closes 13 November 2016

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thomas Becket: Murder and Making of a Saint

Image
Stunning exhibition at the British Museum on the life and afterlife of Thomas Becket. I studied Becket both at A Level and at university so I was really looking forward to this show and it did not disappoint. From walking in to see an old friend, the early Limoges casket showing the murder from the Victoria and Albert Museum, I was gripped. The show told the story well using fantastic objects and led you through his life, the murder, the political aftermath, his sainthood and miracles, and how Canterbury became a major pilgrimage site. It is hard to pick out the best objects as so many were wonderful. I loved that they had early copies of some of the five eyewitness accounts of the murder which made you fell you were almost touching the event. I liked the manuscript on his time in exile which was almost like a comic strip. How wonderful to get a 13th century font from Sweden which shows how far and how quickly the news that Henry II had integrated the murder spread. I think my
Read more

Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year Exhibition 2019

Image
Delightful exhibition at Clarendon Fine Art showing pictures from the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year TV series. I had loved the series which had set nine artists, both professional and amateur, to paint one of three celebrities. It then had a semi-final and final with them all looking at one sitter and in the final they also took on a commission. I loved the way you watched a picture build and how some were then made or spoiled by one stroke of paint.   Finding these pictures I knew so well in the flesh was therefore fascinating. None of them disappointed. My favourite artist from the final, Tom Mead, works looked just as good in real life if not better as you could see the detail. The show included his impressive self-portrait which he submitted to enter the competition, a wonderful fragmented picture of his reflection in a mirror giving a sense of movement. I loved that it included a large version of him and a miniature. His commission for the final of Jazzie B was
Read more

The Renaissance Nude

Image
Beautiful exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at the nude in Renaissance art. The show was gently themed but mainly let the pictures speak for themselves. It began by looking at the subjects, both religious and secular, which include nude figures then examined techniques and models used in these works, finishing by looking at more personal pictures. This is a period I’ve studied a lot so there were a lot of old friends and it was quite fun predicting what might appear. There were a few surprises too such as the rather surprising drawing of the Ecstatic Christ. I liked the fact the show included lots of different art forms not just paintings including sculpture, etchings, drawings and illuminated manuscripts. There were some fascinating hangs to draw comparisons particularly two sets of pictures by Giovanni Bellini and Hand Memling from almost exactly the same date. These were shown back to back in a display cabinet down the middle of one room. My favourite work was
Read more