The Gallerie dell’Accademia, (the accent on the “mi”), is a museum in Venice’s Dorsoduro district. I hinted last time that there’s something inside that you really ought to see. But if we just barge on in and see it now, we won’t appreciate what we’re seeing. We have to do our homework first. As always!
Remember the 4th Crusade? Who could ever forget? What a mess the Crusaders made out of the whole thing, eh? But the Venetians came out smelling like a rose.
Venice –THE Place to Be
For the next 200 years, Venice was THE place to be. It was at the center of East-West trade, it had the best shipbuilders, best navy, best business acumen — best everything.
Even though Europe was still groping its way through the Dark Ages, Venice was prospering mightily. A new concept entered the lives of regular folks: wealth. Lots of Venetians no longer had to work so hard.
People had time for things like art, history, and science. They built large homes or palaces, (“palazzi”), along the banks of the Grand Canal. The times, they were a changin’.
Spices flowed into Venice from the eastern trade routes, and with them, influences from the Byzantine empire. Those influences are still on display in Venetian architecture today.
Also arriving from Constantinople were artifacts and documents from the ancient Greeks. And as Venetians started to have free time, they took note. It wasn’t long before studying all things Greek became all the rage.
Rediscovering Ancient Greece
In 1455, Turks rousted Christians from Constantinople, causing Greek scholars to migrate to Venice. While in Venice, they translated ancient Greek writings into Italian. Venetians couldn’t get enough of it.
Up until that time, life for most Europeans was controlled by the Catholic Church. For example, painters could paint only religious paintings. Anyone appearing in a painting had to have a halo over their head. No mortals allowed in artwork.
But now people were being exposed to the works of the ancient Greeks. It had been OK for the Greeks to put people in their artwork. Why not us? What’s up with that?”
Architecture, science, art, and literature from ancient Greece hadn’t been seen in the West for a century. Now it was popping up all over the place. People were finding out what they’d been missing out on for the past 1,000 years.
But Be Careful…
In those days, taking an interest in Greek antiquities could be dangerous, especially when it came to bibles. The Old Testament had been translated into Greek long ago. The New Testament was written mostly in Greek.
But the Church outlawed all versions of the Bible except its own sanctioned version, which happened to be in Latin. And the only people who could read latin were monks and priests.
The penalty for getting caught with a non-latin version of the Bible was death. I guess they were kind of touchy about that, eh?
Be that as it may, now people had access to Italian versions of the Bible translated from the original Greek. It became clear that whoever made the latin version had strayed quite a bit from the original greek. This was the precursor of serious religious troubles coming down the road.
Due to the ancient Greek influence, Italians started studying arts and sciences again. Mostly in Venice, where the eastern trade routes ended, but the trend caught on in nearby Florence, too. The rest of Europe followed.
Della Pittura
Arabic and Greek works on math and optics found their way to the library of Leon Battista Alberti. In 1436, he connected the dots and published his ideas in a book called “Della Pittura.” (“About Painting”). In “Della Pittura” he explained how to draw pictures in perspective.
Before Alberti, European paintings had a flat look. (As well as a lot of halos). European artists didn’t know how to draw things in perspective.
The painting, “Madonna Enthroned,” painted by Cimabue in 1285, was typical. See how everyone looks like they were just pasted on? No offense to Cimabue — that’s the best anyone could do at the time.
Compare that to “Christ Handing the Keys to St. Peter,” painted by Pietro Perugino 200 years later. The difference is like night and day, eh? Using perspective makes everything look so much more realistic, like what we’re used to seeing. Looks like they lost the halo’s, too. What was the world coming to?
To be continued…
