On the 1st, my daughter had some catching up to do on the computer, so I went for a stroll in our neighborhood. This is part of the wall of one of the buildings on the street connecting our street to the lagoon, in one direction, and to the more of the neighborhood, in the other.
Don't you wonder how old these bricks are? Who made them? Who turned them into a dwelling? I do.......
Looking up, down, near, far -- you never know what you'll see......
This is San Giovanni Battista in Bragora. A sign on the outside said it was built in the 8th century, and was reconstructed in the 9th, and in the 15th.
The door was open, I walked in. There was no indication I shouldn't take pics.
The altar.
Ceiling over the altar.
It was pretty dark in there, but with a little help from Photoshop Elements, we can see.
This is by Alvise Vivarini, who was born in 1445, and lived to be about 60. They think he painted this between 1485 and 1490.
Pictures with labels, that I'm allowed to photograph!
I thought I got a shot of the label for this, but I didn't. It was the sculpture I noticed when I was there. Don't those look like cotton bolls, at the bottom? I wonder what's up with those.....
This was really dark, in the church. It came out better than I'd hoped!
Ambito di Jacobello del Fiore, first half of the 15th century.
There was a woman in the church who worked on flowers in one area the whole time I was there. This is part of that area. Apparently the original document, with translations....
I wonder how often the church gets new flowers, and remembers Vivaldi? The flowers smelled wonderful.
This is by Bartolomeo Vivarini, who lived from around 1432 to 1491. He painted this in 1478.
Pretty amazing work, for a smallish church. I was surprised.
I learned, looking at Art in Venice after I got home that both Vivarinis have work in the Accademia . The painting over San Giovanni Battista in Bragora's altar is in the book, too. I have no idea how many churches there are in Venice, but there are a lot. It seems unlikely to me that all of them are represented in Art in Venice. Pretty cool, to find our relatively small, plain-on-the-outside, neighborhood church so heavily represented in a book like Art in Venice, written about an art-filled town like Venice!
(Digression -- wondering if the weight of Tradition isn't heavier, when everything around you is so old. If there isn't a more palpable sense of "the way things are done".... But maybe not, too -- I can see that the plain and obvious fact that everything is moved, and/or reconstructed, and/or revised, over time, might be as strong a factor...........
End of Digression.)
Back out on the square. Another little dog in a coat, with another woman in sensible shoes. (Note that when I took the dog pics, I was not thinking at all about shoes. The shoes are random; only the dogs were chosen as subjects.)
Looking straight up into someone's laundry. When I took the pic, I thought maybe these were a toddler's dresses. Now I think they are a woman's tshirts. I liked the way the wind blew them open.
Back at our apartment, looking out to the south.
The thing that caught my eye in the previous was the waves coming into the canal. You could see them rebound off the steps, down by the bridge. You can see what I mean, in the next image.
Now, on "the big screen," I am looking at the people. If people with dogs are local, we can see one dog(middle, left), and the guy in the upper left corner surely looks like he's got at least one leash in his hand. And what about the guy heading up the steps with the stringed instrument on his back? Do we think maybe he's local, too? (as always, click on an image to embiggen)
This was the only time in Venice that we had our evening meal in a restaurant.
This wasn't it, but it looks nice, doesn't it?
I would try it, if I lived in Venice.
Looking up, above Roberto's -- shutters and more shutters.
I didn't notice, until just now, that there were two different ways of shuttering those fancy arched windows. Functional exterior shutters are such a good idea!
Spotted in a shop window -- this is a lamp. I believe it was designed by Issey Miyake (there were signs in the window). It looks like it's made of folded paper(?).
Another church. With a prickle ball on top of the dome. Santa Maria Formosa (thank you, Art in Venice!)
Another tower. (This is Santa Maria's campanile.)
In order to facilitate chronological traversal of these posts, here is a link to the next post.
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