For me, one of the great highlights of the last decade of my life was traveling back to Venice. We went for nine days in June, 2019. It had been thirty years since I last saw the city.
We traveled to Venice for one big reason: to see Titian's Transfiguration.
But --so sad to say--it was under conservation. Great excuse to go back! But we did make a kind of Titian pilgrimage, staying in the quarter where we lived and breaking down in tears in front of his last painting in the Academia.
That work, the Pieta, made a great impression on us--in great part because of a fabulous book we read by Mark Hudson, called Titian's Last Days. It was my favorite non-fiction of the year. I wrote this about my experience on Vox Nova at Patheos.
I also wrote for the Hedgehog Review: A Painter Crawling Toward God.
We traveled for Titian but returned in love with Tintoretto.
Also on Titian: Titian: His Life, by Sheila Hale; The Titian Committee, by Iain Pears; Titian: Lady in White, by Andreas Henning (Norton Simon Museum Exhibition Catalog)
On Carpaccio: Ciao, Carpaccio!: An Infatuation, by Jan Morris [Re-read twice and it's still out to read again!}; Carpaccio: Major Pictorial Cycles, by Stefania Mason
My reading so far: Venice Is a Fish: A Sensual Guide, by Tiziano Scarpa (and Dream of Venice in Black and White): If Venice Dies, by Salvatore Settis, Shylock's Daughter: A Novel of Love in Venice, by Erica Jong [worst book of 2019]; A Fury in the Words: Love and Embarrassment in Shakespeare's Venice, by Harry Berger Jr.;Venice and Its Jews: 500 Years Since the Founding of the Ghetto, by Lenore Rosenberg; The Horses of St Mark's: A Story of Triumph in Byzantium, Paris and Venice, by Charles Freeman [FANTASTIC!!! GOING TO RE-READ]; The Science of Saving Venice, by Caroline Fletcher; The City of Falling Angels, by John Berendt (runner up for best in non-fiction!) Also fascinating: Venice: Extraordinary Maintenance, by Gianfranco Pertot
Fantastic Cookbook:Venice: Four Seasons of Home Cooking, by Russell Norman. Also FUN: Brunetti's Cookbook, by Roberta Pianaro, Donna Leon
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