An exceptional example of Byzantine craftsmanship, this shimmering icon was taken from Constantinople to Venice during the Crusades
Location City: Venice
Three chalices show the important roles that materiality, ornament, and craftsmanship could play in an object’s cross-cultural mobility, reuse, and preservation through the centuries.
Mobility and reuse: the Romanos chalices and ...
A painting shows life on the Grand Canal of Venice, including Black gondoliers
Vittore Carpaccio, Miracle of the Relic of ...
Crusaders sacked Constantinople and brought looted treasures back to Venice before the Byzantines recaptured their capital city.
Byzantine Art and the Fourth Crusade
The first Ghetto, Jews in Renaissance Venice
Three synagogues in the Venetian Ghetto
The original Ghetto, on a small Venetian island, hides Renaissance era synagogues of startling beauty
The Renaissance Synagogues of Venice
fresco, mosaic, and marble threatened by a rising sea and the salt it leaves behind
Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, Torcello
Nearly everything in medieval and Renaissance Venice was stolen or imported—and the Venetians advertised that on the facade of the Cathedral.
Venice’s San Marco, a mosaic of spiritual ...
Acts of sacred theft, Venice as a mosaic of treasures from afar
Venice’s San Marco, a mosaic of spiritual ...
In the distance, lightning strikes. What does it mean? Poetic and evocative, this painting invites interpretation.
Giorgione, The Tempest
Brotherhoods lent stability to religious and civic life. These wealthy institutions also commissioned paintings.
Devotional confraternities (scuole) in Renaissance Venice
To the victor go the spoils? These sculptures were taken by the Byzantines, the Venetians, and Napoleon.
Plunder, War, and the Horses of San ...
In this jewel box of a Byzantine church, the solid walls of a Greek-cross plan dissolve into golden light.
Saint Mark’s Basilica, Venice
This personal image was destined for Titian’s tomb, but he may also appear in it as St. Jerome.
Titian and Jacopo Palma il Giovane, Pietà
Here, everything is askew. Form dissolves as Tintoretto unites Florentine line with Venetian color.
Jacopo Tintoretto, Last Supper
Bellini opens up this painting’s space, but holds the viewer at bay. The mood is calm, solemn, and contemplative.
Giovanni Bellini, San Zaccaria Altarpiece
Learn how the solid, abstracted forms of these co-emperors reject earlier understanding of the human body.
Portraits of the Four Tetrarchs
Veronese described himself as a painter of figures. Judging by the throng depicted here, he clearly enjoyed it.
Paolo Veronese, Feast in the House of ...
With its decorative marble and golden light, this space looks a lot like San Marco. Shall we? St. Francis beckons.
Giovanni Bellini, San Giobbe Altarpiece
This painting was once criticized for its loose, open brushwork—a hallmark of Tintoretto’s style we now admire.
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