Leading Pictures of
A Lover of VeniceA collection of the homepage pictures from 2007 to the present
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Leading Pictures ofA Lover of VeniceA collection of the homepage pictures from 2007 to the present |
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My favorites |
"Virgin Citie of Venice, the Queene of the Christian World, that Diamond set in the ring of the Adriatique gulfe, and the most resplendent mirrour of Europe...a subject worthy for the greatest Monarch in the world to reade over." Thomas Coryat, English traveler, "Crudities," 1608. |
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| "Venice's
architecture is born of light. It is light which provides the
architect's palette and gives him his instructions." André
Suarès. |
| "Venice
emerged,
like life itself, from the mud." Gore Vidal in "Vidal in
Venice." |
| "The
real
Venetians...would
take
to the water on foot if they could." Ivo
Prandin. |
| "Venice
is
a
wholly
visceral experience where what we see is so much less than
what we perceive or feel." Annabelle Selldorf. |
| "The
melancholy
that
belongs
to Venice is medicinal."
Annabelle Selldorf. |
| "Sono
stato
a
Venezia
molte volte. Per questo credo fermamente di non
conoscerla." ("I've
been
to
Venice
many times. And so I believe not to know her").
Haim
Baharier |
| "I have learned to know a Venice in Venice that the others seem never to have perceived." James Whistler, 1880. |
| "We
can't
expect
to
really
get to know a place after three weeks or three
months of being there, but we can let the place challenge ourselves,
our identities, and our world view so that when we walk through our
front door after a trip we're different people." David Farley in "30
Days in Italy." |
| "The
simplest
thing
to
tell
you of Venice is that I adore it – have
fallen deeply and desperately in love with it. I had been there twice
before but each time only for a few days. This time I have drunk deep,
and the magic potion has entered my blood." Henry James, "Letters,"
1881. |
| "Venetians never felt like refugees from a lost classical heritage and never experienced the same deep longing for its recovery felt in other Italian cities. By the time of the early Italian Renaissance, Venice was the wealthiest state in Europe and had already completed her greatest architectural achievements." Dial Parrott, "The Genius of Venice.," 2013. |
| "...strangers
over
whom
has
been
thrown the spell of the siren; who, leaving her,
have borne away with them an incurable wound, for which the only solace
has been to dwell again in memory with the features of the beloved, and
to reproduce her lineaments on the mirror of the mind." Horatio Brown, "In
and
Around
Venice,"
1905. |
| "It
seems
only
sensible
to
walk in Venice; nowhere else will the walker be
so well rewarded, and the streets hard though their surfaces appear,
have a miraculous spring in the paving which makes fatigue almost
impossible." J. G. Links, "Venice for Pleasure." |
| "The houses of this city are very notable and very tall and with many chambers and with many chimneys, and grace themselves with rich façades and windows to the streets, richly wrought in gold and azure, all covered in marble." Pero Tafur, Spanish traveler, "Wanderings and Travels," 1435-1439. |
| "The
eye
sees
only
what the mind is prepared to comprehend."
Henry
Bergson. |
| "This
city
is
so
clean
to walk in as if a man were walking in a gracious
chamber, because it is well paved and well bricked over; no four-legged
beast enters it, it doesn't accumulate water in winter, and thus there
is no mud nor dust in summer; there the seas wax and wane, but not as
much as in the Ponent, and take away the filth from the secret places,
or else they could not live because of the stench, and they still say
that sometimes the air gets infected, and that's why they have so many
fires, winter and summer, and burn many perfumes and bring with
themselves big smells..." Pero Tafur, Spanish traveler, "Wanderings
and Travels," 1435-1439. |
| "I
Mercury
shine
auspiciously
on
this above all other emporia." Jacopo
de'Barbari, "View of Venice," 1500. |
| "Beauty
of
surface,
of
tone, of detail, of things near enough to touch and
kneel upon and lean against." Henry James. |
| "There
never
has
been
room
for tragedy in Venice" Peter Ackroyd, "Venice, Pure
City." |
| "Departure,
Risk.
Profit.
Glory.
These
were the compass points of Venetian Life."
Roger Crowley, "City of Fortune. How Venice Ruled the Seas." |
| "Venice
embraces
those
whom
all
others shun. She raises those whom others
lower. She affords a welcome to those who are persecuted
elsewhere."
Pietro Aretino in an address to the doge, 1527. |
| "I
cannot
give
the
dimensions
of this city, for it appears to me not one
city alone but several cities placed together." Pietro Casola, Italian
traveler, "Pilgrimage to Jerusalem," 1494. |
| "Long
ago,
long
ago
on
the waves built a city, as lovely as seems To some
bard in his dreams." Lord Lytton (Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton,"Owen
Meredith") |
| "I
find
it
hard
to
understand why, if the Republic was an oligarchy
utterly selfish and despotic, it has left to all classes of Venetians
so much regret and sorrow for its fall." W. D. Howells, "Venetian Life." |
| "If
I
were
not
King
of France, I would choose to be a citizen of Venice."
Henry III, 1574 |
| "...Calendario
had
also
displayed
his
remarkable genius as a sculptor. It was his
novel idea to erect groups of near life-size figures representing
stories from the Old Testament, The Drunkenness of Noah and the Fall of
Man, at the lower corners of the Palace. Placing large-scale sculpted
images in such prominent, eye-level locations on the corners (as
opposed to the entranceways) of a monumental public building was a new
concept that (except for the remounted Tetrarchs on the corner of
the San Marco treasury) no Greek, Roman, or earlier medieval sculptor
had attempted." Dial Parrott, "The Genius of Venice," 2013. |
| "The
sails
of
Venice
are
a constant object of beauty in the landscape; their
deep oranges and reds; their fantastic designs –here a heart pierced by
a sword, there a rose in bloom, or a star with a flash of lightning
from it– contrast so vividly with the cool gray of the waters upon
which they float." Horatio Brown, "In and Around Venice," 1905. |
| "It
is
hard
to
believe
how comfortable the [gondolas] in Venice are until
you have tried them. For they offer so much comfort to passengers who
have made long trips by horse and carriage and arrive at Marghera or at
some other point of embarkation where the calm restores their exhausted
bodies that they finish the journey as though they were sitting at
home. As a result, they forget their sufferings and they are rewarded
by the sight, in the midst of the waves, of many beautiful palaces...I
have experienced this many times myself, having been tossed around in
carriages and endured the miseries of riding on horseback." Cesare
Vecellio, "Degli Habiti Antichi et Moderni di Diverse Parti del Mondo,"
1590. |
| "Smile
and
be
happy.
You
are in Venice." Shannon Essa and Ruth Edenbaum,
"Chow! Venice" |
| "I
Neptune
reside
here
protecting
the waters at this port." Jacopo
de'Barbari, "View of Venice," 1500. |
| "In
the
winter,
Venice
is
like an abandoned theater. The play is finished
but the echoes remain." A. Blatas |
| "There
are
two
ways
of
getting about in Venice: by foot on the dry land, and
by boat." Marin Sanudo, 1493. |
| "Reeling
from
the
assaults
of
beauty, backing away from its abysmal depths and
your own incapacity to embrace it, explain it, you seek relief. For an
instant, like so many Venetians of centuries past, you wish to become a
fugitive from splendor." Janet Sethre |
| "La
geografia
di
Venezia è soprattutto un'avventura della mente"
(The geography of Venice is above all an adventure of the mind). Franco
Ricciardiello, "Storie di Venezia." |
| "Only to those who linger here after they have seen the sights, knowing that they should have left, does it reveal itself." Ian Littlewood |
| "The
singular
thing,
which
upsets
any idea of proportion, is that this
jumble of columns, of capitals, of basreliefs, of enamels, of mosaics -
this mingling of Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab and Gothic styles -
produces the most harmonious possible whole." Théophile Gautier |
"At sunset all cities look wonderful, but some more than others." Joseph Brodsky |
| "For there the fancies of men have suffered the Sea Change of half a score centuries; there their minds have met from east and west, and the currents of a hundred nations have whirled and eddied in the narrow vortex, ever with new glory rising from the foam; and the Stern Pisan and the Dreamy Greek and the restless Arab, the languid Ottomite and the strong Teuton; there the patience of early Christianity and the enthusiasm of medieval superstition, and the fire of ancient and the rationalism of recent infidelity, have all had their work, and all their time. There the marbles of a thousand mountains have been labored, each by those who dwelt at their feet, and the offerings of a thousand isles have met in one cloud of incense - and out of this masque and morrice of Kingdoms and times, there has arisen one wild Sea Harmony, the sweetest that ever human soul conceived." John Ruskin |
| "...a
confusion
of
delight,
amidst
which the beasts of the Greek horses are
seen blazing in their breath of golden strength, and the Saint Mark's
lion, lifted on a blue field covered with stars, until at last, as if
in ecstasy, the crest of the arches break into a marble foam, and toss
themselves far into the blue sky in flashes and wreaths of sculptured
spray, as if the breakers in the Lido shore had been frost-bound before
they fell, and the sea-nymphs had inlaid them with coral and amethyst."
John Ruskin |
"The Florentines, who were incapable of ruling themselves, produced a great theorist of government: Machiavelli. The Venetians had no theorists and evolved a model republic." Mary McCarthy |
"Winter light seems sharper, the low angle of the sun means it bounces off pale terracotta walls and floods squares and courtyards with a bright, pink glow." Russell Norman, "Venice. Four Seasons of Home Cooking" |
"...and disembarking we are glad to be at home again. For even an afternoon's absence is like an act of treachery." E. V. Lucas |
| "Although
our
stays
in
Venice
tend to be short, we always leave traces behind us.
Every time we come back, a little more of our being threads its way
into her tapestry, and so the memories of our visits gradually create a
synopsis of our personal history." Petr Král |
| "Fifty
people
on
the
vaporetto.
/ Bundled in hats, scarves and gloves, / we're
alone with a hundred restless / shifting eyes." Mark Rudman, "Provoked
in Venice." |
| "The
only
way
to care for Venice as she deserves it is to give her a chance
to touch you often –to linger and remain and return." Henry James,
"Henry James on Italy." |
"If Venice didn't have a bridge, Europe would be an island." Mario Stefani |
| "Venice is not only, like Paris, a context for romantic encounters, it is also a partner in them, becoming almost, to the solitary traveler, itself the object of desire." Ian Littlewood |
"The way to enjoy Venice is to follow the example of these people and make the most of simple pleasures." Henry James, "Henry James on Italy." |
"..this city improves time's looks, beautifies the future. That's what the role of this city in the universe is." Joseph Brodsky, "Watermark." |
"A city built in the air would be something still more wonderful; but any other must yield the palm to this for singularity and imposing effect." William Hazlitt, 1826, "Notes on a Journey through France and Italy." |
"I think it is Hazlitt who said that the only thing which could beat this city built on water would be a city built in air" Joseph Brodsky |
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