The Rough Guide to Venice and the Veneto

the release of Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut,
which was adapted from a novella by
this contemporary and compatriot
of Freud. This similarly short and
intense book also explores the dynamics
of desire, but from the perspective
of a desperate man who is rapidly
approaching the end of his life.
Michel Tournier Gemini ( Johns Hopkins).
Venice is just one of the localities
through which the identical twins
Jean and Paul (known to their parents
as Jean-Paul) are taken in this amazingly
inventive exploration of the concept
of twinship. It might be flashy in
places, yet Tournier throws away more
ideas in the course of a novel than
most writers dream up in a lifetime.
Barry Unsworth Stone Virgin (Penguin,
o/p; Norton). Yet another story
of the uncanny repetitions of history
– this time an English expert in stone
conservation begins to suspect that
his emotional entanglement with a
sculptor’s wife is a recapitulation of a
past liaison. The gobbets of scholarly
detail sit uncomfortably alongside the
melodrama of the plot.
Salley Vickers Miss Garnet’s Angel
(HarperCollins; Plume). Desiccated
spinster (a Marxist as well, to make
matters worse) is awakened by Venice
to the finer things in life, and falls in
love for the first time – an extremely
hackneyed scenario, but Vickers has a
sound knowledge of the city and its
art, and displays a light touch in her
recreation of the place.
Jeanette Winterson The Passion
(Vintage; Grove). Whimsical tale of
the intertwined lives of a member of
Napoleon’s catering corps and a female
gondolier. Acclaimed as a masterpiece
in some quarters.
Art and architecture
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James S. Ackerman Palladio
(Penguin). Concise introduction
to the life, works and cultural background
of the Veneto’s greatest architect.
Especially useful if you’re visiting
Vicenza or any of the villas.
Svetlana Alpers and Michael
Baxandall Tiepolo and the Pictorial
Intelligence (Yale). This brilliant book
analyzes with exhilarating precision
the way in which Tiepolo perceived
and recreated the world in his paintings,
and demolishes the notion that
Tiepolo was merely a “decorative” artist.
Though they devote most space to
the frescoes at Würzburg, Alpers and
Baxandall discuss many of the Tiepolo
paintings in Venice and the Veneto,
and their revelatory readings will
enrich any encounter with his art. The
reproductions maintain Yale’s customary
high standards.
Patricia Fortini Brown Venetian Narrative
Painting in the Age of Carpaccio
(Yale). Rigorously researched study of
a subject central to Venetian culture
yet often overlooked in more general
accounts. Fresh reactions to the works
discussed are combined with a penetrating
analysis of the ways they reflect
the ideals of the Republic at the time.
Worth every penny.
Richard Goy Venice: The City
and its Architecture (Phaidon).
Published in 1997, this superb book
instantly became the benchmark.
Eschewing the linear narrative adopted
by previous writers on the city’s architecture,
Goy goes for a multi-angled
approach, devoting one part to the
growth of the city and its evolving
technologies, another to its “nuclei”
(the Piazza, Arsenale, Ghetto and
Rialto), and the last to its building
types (palazzi, churches, etc). The
result is a book that does full justice to
the richness and density of the Venetian
cityscape – and the design and