Building the Myth of Venice: Art, Architecture and Venezianità in the Renaissance

What made Renaissance Venice remarkable? Why was this city-state a driving force in early modern art and architecture? Why is the Venice of the Renaissance different from other centers such as Florence and Rome? How might we understand the importance of Titian, Palladio and Bellini to their peers and for future generations? Many of these questions are connected to the "myth" of Venice and the calculated construction of a history of the city and its idiosyncratic place in the political and social landscape as a hinge between west and east. In this seminar we will examine how artists and patrons used art and architecture to transform the capital city of an early modern empire into a powerful vehicle for the transmission of venezianità or "Venetian-ness."