Sunday, March 31, 2013

March 31 -- early afternoon

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The sky got bluer, while we were at lunch!



This is an unusually big piazza, for Venice.



We sat on a bench for a bit, basking in the sunshine.  Ahhhh.



We weren't the only ones enjoying the sun.



Moving on -- Moorish touches?



This is the very first laundromat I saw, and I think I only saw one more.  Venice is so focused on tourists that it seems there's not much energy or space left for the needs of its actual inhabitants.



Enjoying the reflections in the canals.




Looking down, from where the prev was taken.



We were headed for a concert in Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, usually just called the Frari.  Approaching  it from the back, we see it first above some dwellings.




Titian's  masterwork Assumption of the Virgin is on the other side of that space where once there were windows, but now there are no windows, bottom right. The opportunity to see the Assumption was one of the reasons we wanted to visit the Frari.

 We got there early, before the concert, in hopes we could look around the church.  But no, it was closed.  So we meandered around the neighborhood.



Another tower.  Against a blue sky!



More blue sky!  This is the Scuola Grande di San Rocco.




Marble embellishment on brick.  This is a side door into the Frari.



Someone else enjoying the sunshine.  Italian dogs wear a lot of coats.  I can see it for a little bitty dog with no hair, almost hardly, but I saw big shaggy dogs wearing coats (and panting!).



More blue sky, reflected in windows.



Love the reflections in the canals.



Lemons, and clotheslines.



Speaking of clotheslines.....  As always, you can click on an image to embiggen it.  If you do that with this one, you can see that the clotheslines are loops, on pullies.  The person hanging up the wash stands inside the window, pins something to the line, and slides the line along to make space for the next item to be pinned.

Wet laundry is heavy.  Those things sticking out of the building, supporting the clotheslines, need to be strong, and they need to be firmly attached!

I like the shadows.....  (So glad to see any shadows, after days of gray soft light and no shadows!)



Here's the other interesting mask shop.



Like the architectural details, and the colors and textures.



Palm trees in someone's back yard.



We went back to the Frari.  The concert was a a small group -- flute, oboe, bassoon, and organ.  They must have told us "no pics," because I didn't take any.

The musicians were very good, but we left at the intermission because it was freezing in there.  Even with the sunshine pouring through the windows.

On our way out, we had a look at the Assumption.  We couldn't get near it, and it is very poorly lit.  Poor light is good for the longevity of the painting, but frustrating for the would-be viewer.  Much of the major art in Venice is in its original location.  It's sort of cool, seeing it as it was intended to be displayed, but this "from a distance, poorly lit" thing is more usual than not, in my limited experience.

It reminds me of "seeing" Dall sheep in Denali National Park in Alaska (which we did, as barely-visible white specks on a mountain).  I'm very glad there are Dall sheep (and grizzlies and wolves and everybody) still in the wild, and it was cool to know those white specs were Dall sheep, but I find critters much more interesting to look at when I can see them in an unnatural situation, from unnaturally close.  It is very good that there are wild critters, but, all in all, I think they are more interesting to look at in a zoo.

In an academic/philosophical way I can appreciate that it's good that Titian's Assumption is in its original location, but I can't actually SEE it the way I could if it were housed in a good museum.  A conundrum.



In order to facilitate chronological traversal of these posts, here is a link to the next post.

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