Venice-- it's the most serene and beautiful city in Italy, and possibly the whole world. But Venice at night-- all darkened and quiet-- takes up the most space in my imagination. I seriously love the depictions of Venice as enigmatic, shadowy, and even dangerous. Without cars or streetlights or other modern comforts, you might feel like you’ve stepped back in time and that around any given corner, you could find… anything. All of this lends Venice this air of inscrutability and mystery. And over time, locals and visitors alike have reveled in this sensation as fodder for myth-making and storytelling. Some stories really stick, lasting for centuries and becoming embedded into the city itself, through its buildings, monuments, and specific locations. And there’s one building that has had plenty of legends built around it. This particular elegant structure had an illustrious past, having once been a meeting place where Italian Renaissance artists discussed their craft, caroused, and gambled. But it’s also the location where relationships soured, crimes were committed, and death inevitably followed. Today, some people won’t even enter this particular building because it is feared to be haunted, cursed… or both.
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Want more art-historical goodness? Check out the links below:
Glory of Venice exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art
Read Vasari's take on Morto da Feltre
Wikipedia's Entry on Morto da Feltre
Mysterious Venice: The Casino of the Spirits (In Italian)
Italian Mysteries: Haunted Venice
ArtCurious Virtual Vacation: Mexico City's Galleries and Art Fairs
ArtCurious Virtual Vacation: Mexico City's Museums
ArtCurious + Like Minds Travel: Join us in Venice!
Episode #119: Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful
Author Interview: Joanna Moorhead's "Surreal Spaces: The Life and Art of Leonora Carrington"
Author Interview: Jeannie Marshall's "All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel"
Author Interview: Patrick Bringley's "All the Beauty in the World"
Episode #118: Modern Love--Marina Abramović and Ulay
Episode #117: Modern Love--Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, Part 2
Episode #116: Modern Love--Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, Part 1
Episode #115: Modern Love--Hans (Jean) Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp
Author Interview: Annie Cohen-Salal and "Picasso the Foreigner"
Episode #114: Modern Love--Remedios Varo and Gerardo Lizarraga
Author Interview: Michael Finkel on "The Art Thief"
Episode #113: Modern Love--Lee Miller and Man Ray (Season 13, Episode 6)
Episode #112: Modern Love--Robert Rauschenberg, with Cy Twombly and Jasper Johns (Season 13, Episode 5)
Episode #111: Modern Love--Dora Maar and Pablo Picasso
Episode #110: Modern Love--Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight (Season 13, Episode 3)
Episode #109: Modern Love--Anni and Josef Albers (Season 13, Episode 2)
Bonus: Enjoy "The Art of Crime"
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