A realist, in Venice, would become a romantic by mere faithfulness to what he saw before him.
-Arthur Symons
“Memory's images, once they are fixed in words, are erased," Polo said. "Perhaps I am afraid of losing Venice all at once, if I speak of it, or perhaps, speaking of other cities, I have already lost it, little by little.”
-Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
--
I wonder if the best thing to do here is bow to Mr. Calvino's words. Speaking of the city would crimp on its power. Why bother translating its greatness into words? Just go there. You will get lost. You will not mind. Go in the winter. It smells better.
I hope you enjoy these images, handmade as always with no digital components whatsoever, and that they offer something fresh on a city whose alleys and waterways have been painted and photographed countless times over the centuries, but which somehow still breathes anew, as it ever has.
My favorite writing on Venice is that of Goethe, the German writer, whose Italian journals are a great, lucid joy to read. They make the late 1700s feel like today or yesterday. He writes of the same things we think about– complaining about bad art and praising the good stuff, thoughts about friends and work and weather and doubt and love. Particularly fun is a passage in which he describes two plays he saw in short succession– one he found hilariously awful, the other enchanting ("I just got back from the Tragedy and am still laughing, so let me commit this farce to paper at once!"). His passages are too long to quote here though; but if you've ever wanted the past to come thrillingly alive.... For now, here instead are a few tidbits by other luminaries on that most unique of cities:
--
“Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.”
-Capote
"When I went to Venice, I discovered that my dream had become- incredibly but quite simply- my address."
-Proust
“The experts are right, he thought. Venice is sinking. The whole city is slowly dying. One day the tourists will travel here by boat to peer down into the waters, and they will see pillars and columns and marble far, far beneath them, slime and mud uncovering for brief moments a lost underworld of stone. Their heels made a ringing sound on the pavement and the rain splashed from the gutterings above. A fine ending to an evening that had started with brave hope, with innocence."
-Daphne du Maurier
Paris is an ideal place to become informed, while Venice is a place to think and write.
-Pontus Hulten
"Gledajući sve to, razmišljao je kako onaj koji kopnom dolazi u Veneciju na kolodvor ima osjećaj da ulazi u palaču na stražnji ulaz, i da ne valja nikako drukčije dolaziti nego samo ovako kao on sada, brodom, samo pučinom, u ovaj najnevjerojatniji od svih gradova.”
-Thomas Mann (basically saying that entering Venice from the train station, which is how most people get there, is like accessing paradise from the back door, and that it'd feel more appropriate to approach the city from the sea, because the view is spectacular. Personally I like that you have to enter by the not-exciting train station, because the beauty of the place then reveals itself gradually.)
“The quality of Venice that accomplishes what religion so often cannot is that Venice has made peace with the waters. It is not merely pleasant that the sea flows through, grasping the city like tendrils of vine, and, depending upon the light, making alleys and avenues of emerald and sapphire, it is a brave acceptance of dissolution and an unflinching settlement with death. Though in Venice you may sit in courtyards of stone, and your heels may click up marble stairs, you cannot move without riding upon or crossing the waters that someday will carry you in dissolution to the sea.”
-Mark Helprin
-Arthur Symons
“Memory's images, once they are fixed in words, are erased," Polo said. "Perhaps I am afraid of losing Venice all at once, if I speak of it, or perhaps, speaking of other cities, I have already lost it, little by little.”
-Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
--
I wonder if the best thing to do here is bow to Mr. Calvino's words. Speaking of the city would crimp on its power. Why bother translating its greatness into words? Just go there. You will get lost. You will not mind. Go in the winter. It smells better.
I hope you enjoy these images, handmade as always with no digital components whatsoever, and that they offer something fresh on a city whose alleys and waterways have been painted and photographed countless times over the centuries, but which somehow still breathes anew, as it ever has.
My favorite writing on Venice is that of Goethe, the German writer, whose Italian journals are a great, lucid joy to read. They make the late 1700s feel like today or yesterday. He writes of the same things we think about– complaining about bad art and praising the good stuff, thoughts about friends and work and weather and doubt and love. Particularly fun is a passage in which he describes two plays he saw in short succession– one he found hilariously awful, the other enchanting ("I just got back from the Tragedy and am still laughing, so let me commit this farce to paper at once!"). His passages are too long to quote here though; but if you've ever wanted the past to come thrillingly alive.... For now, here instead are a few tidbits by other luminaries on that most unique of cities:
--
“Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.”
-Capote
"When I went to Venice, I discovered that my dream had become- incredibly but quite simply- my address."
-Proust
“The experts are right, he thought. Venice is sinking. The whole city is slowly dying. One day the tourists will travel here by boat to peer down into the waters, and they will see pillars and columns and marble far, far beneath them, slime and mud uncovering for brief moments a lost underworld of stone. Their heels made a ringing sound on the pavement and the rain splashed from the gutterings above. A fine ending to an evening that had started with brave hope, with innocence."
-Daphne du Maurier
Paris is an ideal place to become informed, while Venice is a place to think and write.
-Pontus Hulten
"Gledajući sve to, razmišljao je kako onaj koji kopnom dolazi u Veneciju na kolodvor ima osjećaj da ulazi u palaču na stražnji ulaz, i da ne valja nikako drukčije dolaziti nego samo ovako kao on sada, brodom, samo pučinom, u ovaj najnevjerojatniji od svih gradova.”
-Thomas Mann (basically saying that entering Venice from the train station, which is how most people get there, is like accessing paradise from the back door, and that it'd feel more appropriate to approach the city from the sea, because the view is spectacular. Personally I like that you have to enter by the not-exciting train station, because the beauty of the place then reveals itself gradually.)
“The quality of Venice that accomplishes what religion so often cannot is that Venice has made peace with the waters. It is not merely pleasant that the sea flows through, grasping the city like tendrils of vine, and, depending upon the light, making alleys and avenues of emerald and sapphire, it is a brave acceptance of dissolution and an unflinching settlement with death. Though in Venice you may sit in courtyards of stone, and your heels may click up marble stairs, you cannot move without riding upon or crossing the waters that someday will carry you in dissolution to the sea.”
-Mark Helprin