ONLINE SEMINAR
May 5 | Venice in Art and Literature

Description

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LEADER

Sean Forester is an artist and lecturer from the San Francisco Bay Area. He studied at St. John’s College Great Books Program, Cambridge University, and the Florence Academy of Art. Sean is a longtime Classical Pursuits seminar leader, and Venice is one of his favourite places.

BOOKS

Venice: Art & Architecture, by Marion Kaminski
(H.F. Ullmann, 2013)
Paperback
ISBN-13: 978-3848003235

This is the publishing information for the most recent edition of Venice: Art & Architecture. The book is available in a number of previous editions in both hardcover and paperback, with various ISBNs. Participants can use any edition for this seminar.

The Servant of Two Masters, by Carlo Goldoni, translated by Stephen Mulrine
(Nick Hern Books, 2012)
ISBN-13: 978-1848421936
Please be sure to obtain this edition.

Sean will also send registered participants a PDF of readings by Goethe, Henry James, Walter Pater, and Vernon Lee. More information will be provided to registrants in their welcome materials.

We encourage you to support local bookstores or other independent sellers, especially as alternatives to Amazon.

In the US and the UK, try Bookshop.org, World of Books, or Ebooks (electronic books only)

In the US and Canada, try Powell’s Books, IndieBound, and Thiftbooks (used books only in Canada)

In Canada, try McNally Robinson or Indigo

 

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What makes Venice so enchanting? Perhaps the presence of so many contrasts in one city: water and stone, sensuality and spirituality, comedy and tragedy, East and West, reality and illusion, triumph and decay. How do these elements find expression in the art, literature, architecture, music and theatre of Venice?

Venetian Renaissance painters such as Bellini, Titian and Tintoretto used brilliant colour and strong contrasts of light and dark. Their approach differed from that of the Florentines, whose art centred on drawing. This debate between form and colour continued to the nineteenth century when colourists like Turner and Monet traveled to paint Venice. The city and its painters made deep impressions on Goethe, Henry James and Walter Pater. These poetic, observant writers will be some of our literary guides.

The extravagant commedia dell’arte and Carnevale are quintessential Venetian experiences. Commedia, with its situational comedy and character types, influenced later comedy from Shakespeare to Seinfeld. We will read Carlo Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters, watch several scenes performed, and discuss the significance of Venetian masks.  But Venice has tragedy, too. Monteverdi’s Orfeo can be considered the first great tragic opera, and we will listen to selections from it. The dark, mysterious aspect of Venice is strong in Vernon Lee’s story “A Wicked Voice.” Lee (aka Violet Paget) was a friend of John Singer Sargent, whose paintings of Venice we’ll discuss along with Lee’s writing.

Leader Sean Forester remembers, at age 19, when he first climbed the Rialto bridge to see palazzi reflected in the Grand Canal. Perhaps you have visited Venice, or plan to one day? In the meantime, join Classical Pursuits on this virtual journey as we experience the glory of Venice. For a preview of this mysterious city, Sean invites you to watch this BBC documentary on Venice, told by Franceso da Mosta, whose family has lived in Venice for 1,000 years.

All online seminar payments are nonrefundable.

 

Main image credit: “San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice” by Sean Forester
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