Virtuosity: Venezia

VERDE.  The color of creation.  I began my search for greens in gardens.  What unfolded were these images depicting the genius of human artistry.  It's everywhere in Venice.  First glass, then gardens... 

GLASS:  Bertil Vallien, a world-renowned glass arist from Sweden, currently has a retrospective show called Nine Rooms in an exquisite restored palazzo overlooking the Grand Canal.  He is a master of sand-casting ethereal "sculptures within sculptures" that deeply draw you into the soul of the piece.

Miraculously, I was invited to the Berengo Glass Studio in Murano that sponsored Bertil Vallien's retrospective show.  It was an honor to be able to watch the master (on right with beret) and his crew.  Here is a boat-shaped sand mold, waiting to be filled with clear, molten glass.  The man in white is interpreting Bertil's English instructions to the Italian foundry crew.

MOSAICS:  I organized a tour with some artists to the Orsoni mosaic tile factory, founded in 1888 to revive the Byzantine art of mosaics and the techniques for making pure glass enamels that had been developed in Murano in the Renaissance period.  These crucibles are filled with glass paste and metal oxides (creating the various colors) and are melted in the furnace, then rolled into tile-width slabs.

Here are some of the Orsoni mosaic tile color samples.  The Orsoni company has 3,000 different colors and also a variety of gold tiles.

The Orsoni company calls this their "library" of enamels.  There are shelves and shelves of glass that can be purchased in sheets, or pre-cut into tiles.

This Orsoni mosaic tile cutter is meticulously trimming tiny golden tiles.  The gold tiles are made of sheets of gold leaf sandwiched between layers of glass.

In addition to supplying tiles to famous churches and institutions around the world, the Orsoni company gives one- and two-week mosaic tile setting lessons.  Here is a student's portrait of Frank Zappa! 

SCULPTURE:  Here is a sculpture in the garden of the Peggy Guggenheim museum.  Peggy is the niece of Solomon Guggenheim who was the benefactor of New York's Guggenheim Museum.  She was an eccentric collector of modern art during the 1940's-1960's, and lived her last days in a palazzo on the Grand Canal, where her collection is now open to the public.

A Henry Moore sculpture in the Guggenheim garden.

A Guggenheim garden detail.

John Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, gave Peggy Guggenheim this Wishing Tree.  Visitors write their wishes and hang them on the tree.

GARDENING: Surely the color scheme of this person's front door and the vine peeking over the secret garden wall were intentional. 

Simple, inviting and enticing.

A secret forest, walled off from the bustle of the busy canal.

A private palazzo garden with gnomes of royalty.

A canal-side garden.

A cascade of foliage.

 WOODEN BOAT BUILDING:  A squero is a boatyard, and here is one where gondolas and other wooden boats are built and repaired.

The work of a local wooden boat builder and creative painter.

I spent my summers in rowboats in Maine where the oarlocks are U-shaped.  Here, the oarlocks are sculptures in themselves.  The canal widths preclude using two horizontal oars, so the boats and gondolas are maneuvered with one or two oars vertically, in a sculling motion.

LEAF FOLDING:  This lovely woman makes sculptures out of leaves.  They are highly detailed and elegant.  I have a grasshopper.

PRINTMAKING:  This is one of my fellow artists at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica.  She is lifting a new print from the carved woodblock which has just gone through an ancient press.  The series of prints she created were based on Venetian symbolism.

PAINTING:  In today's art terms, I'd say the whole island of Burano is an "installation" - a piece of art composed by its community.  Each house has color coordinated pot gardens, door drapes and laundry.  Why?  Simply because it's beautiful.

Another block of Burano.

Who needs house numbers?

I'm home.

BRONZE CASTING AND IRON WORK:  The lion is the symbol of San Marco, and therefore, of Venice.  They adorn buildings, gates, doorbells and churches all over Venice.  This one looks serious, yet gentle.

This cast iron lion is one of many fountains situated in the squares.  The water is potable, fun to paddle in (if you're a child) and great to cool your hands during the scorching summer months.

MASONRY:  The architecture of Venice is a miracle of masonry.  Here is a combination of brick, stone and stucco.

And finally, a fantastic feat of physics.  

Venice: Harvest from Land and Sea

It was a frantic week, searching Venice in vain for things that are VIOLA.  My mistake?  I didn't wake up early enough!  A plethora of purple is to be found at the marketplace, but you have to catch sight of it before it's cooked and eaten.

We'll start before the bounty reaches the marketplace, on the tiny Island of Burano, where the fishermen get up before dawn...

For centuries, the small community of 450 fishermen on the island of Burano (situated in the lagoon north of Venice) have provided fresh fish for the famous Rialto Marketplace in Venice.  The women of Burano, since the 16th century, have been renowned for their lace-making, a trade introduced from Cyprus, which was then ruled by Venetians. 

The bright colors of the Burano houses follow a special system originating from the golden age of its development.  If someone wishes to paint their home, they must send a request to the government, who will respond by making notice of certain colors permitted for that lot.  It is said that the colors were useful to delineate the properties, and also so that fishermen could see their homes from the sea. 

Burano's boats, parked along the edges of the canals, are as colorful as their houses.  There is a small, open-air fish market on Burano, but most of the catch is delivered to the famous, bustling Rialto Market in Venice.

On his way to the market, here is a typical Venetian shopper.  Try to picture carrying home heavy bags of groceries, over bridges and up flights of stairs, without this wheeled carrier.  When entering a grocery store, many of these personal carts are parked in rows near the checkout stand, waiting to be filled up by shoppers.

We're at Rialto's Pescheria, or fish market.  Along with fruit and vegetable stands, and kiosks of cheeses, the Rialto Market is one of the liveliest spots in Venice.  The Pescheria has been located in this commercial section of Venice since the 14th century. 

According to the book, Secret Venice, the ancient trade of comprovendi pesce, or fishmonger, was restricted to elderly fishermen who had worked at least 20 years at sea, and were over the age of 50.  As a reward for their hard work, the Venetian Republic set aside this trade exclusively for them, allowing the men to end their working life away from the risks of the sea.

This is fresh tonno, or tuna from the northeast Atlantic for €17.80/kilo.  The Italians use tuna in many of their delicious sauces for pasta.

These are spada, or swordfish, fillets, and pieces of salmon.  On a building near the Pescheria, is an old, marble plaque that displays the regulated lengths each type of fish must have before it can be sold.  These "rules-of-length" were rigorously enforced and were intended to protect the fish during breeding season.  The rules still apply today.

Here is a whole pesche spada, or swordfish, along with some shrimp and losters.  Behind, you can see the columns of the open-air Rialto Fishmarket building.  At the tops of each column are beautiful capitals decorated with sea creatures such as crabs, lobsters, squid, octopus and seahorses.

The purple eye of a swordfish.

Octopus flowers.

Calamari Freschi Vivi, or fresh live squid.  Creepy eyes.

Next to the fishmarket, on a building occupied by the State Courts, is a wrought iron gate with a Latin inscription that reads "piscis primum a capite foetet" which means "fish begins to stink from the head".  As the Secret Venice book says, "this could be a warning to the inexperienced customers buying fish, or it could be a metaphorical warning against the dangers of power corrupting those who possess it, with the 'head' being the first part of the body politic to go rotten".  

One of the artists here at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica has fig trees, and she would bring in baskets of delicious ripe figs for everyone. 

Uva Fragola, or grapes with a strawberry flavor, can be purchased from any fruit vendor here.  They are used to make the famous Fragolino dessert wine.  There is a monestery within the city of Venice that grows Uva Fragola grapes that possibly decend from vines dating back to 1253.

The Rialto marketplace.  Beyond this stall, you can see the pallazi that line the Canal Grande.

Nostrani means home-grown, which likely refers to being grown in small farms on outlying islands in the Venetian lagoon.

Purple eggplants.

Purple lettuce.

And finally, a purple garnish.  The sign says that the rosmarino (rosemary) and the salvia (sage) are grown on the neighboring island of Sant' Erasmo, from where Venice receives much of its local fruits and vegetables.  We have rosemary and bay growing right in the garden of the Scuola.

Venetians are people of the sea - fishermen and sailors.  My friend, an instructor at the Scuola, gave me a tour of her friend's boat, moored at a marina on the north side of the Castello district.  The pride in the owner's eyes spoke of an ancestral connection to the sea.  After seeing the boat, we went on to a lovely, quiet restaurant to dine on fresh, fried calamari, zucchini, cauliflower,  and sweet, white wine.  Buon appetito!  

VERDE = Giardino 
Venetian gardens are primarily secret, but perhaps I can get a peek during the week...