Dorsoduro is a less-visited district of Venice, and all the better for it. It is also home to Accademia, an art gallery with some very special paintings.
Opposite our hotel, Al Ponte Antico, on the other side of the Grand Canal in Dorsoduro district, stands the old fish market. It was late on a Monday when we wandered over there so the fish market was not on - only Tuesday to Saturday.
We took the vaporetto to Accademia but were quite early so walked down to the last remaining traditional boatyard in Venice.
As always the vaporetto trip is a lovely way to move around Venice with all the beautiful palazzi along the Grand Canal.
We went to Accademia particularly to see works by Hieronymus Bosch, Piero della Francesca, Dürer and Giovanni Bellini, but there are many additional fine works of art to see here.
Saint Jerome and a Devotee
Transverse and Sagittal Cross-Sections of the Skull
Left: in the early 16th century the German artist Albrecht Dürer visited Venice and set about using his graphic skills to portray the inhabitants of the city, from young black Africans to society women.
Right: courtesans of La Serenissima were adept at disguise and cross-dressing including the use of towering platform shoes - it's hard to imagine how anyone wearing the examples shown here could even walk in them!
We also visited the Human Body exhibition which was very interesting. I knew that Michelangelo had studied the human body, even going so far as to dissect bodies himself, but Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer and even Piero della Francesca took meticulous body measurements to ensure realism in their art. The star exhibit was Leonardo's Vitruvian Man.
Lay fraternities, called "Scuole" in Venice, were set up in the second half of the 13th century. Members came from the middle classes, from trades and professions. These men were not from patrician families so were excluded form government of the Republic, but as a member of a confraternity they could have some influence, particularly in religious and charitable affairs. For instance the Scuole organised what became a fully fledged welfare system.
The remains of San Rocco (St Roch) had come into possession of the Scuole Grande di San Rocco in 1485 and thereafter the confraternity expanded rapidly and became extremely rich. It was decided to build a grand new headquarters and engage Tintoretto to decorate them.
Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto meaning "little dyer", his father was a dyer) was born in Venice in 1519. He worked at the Scuola San Rocco for over twenty years, creating over 60 paintings on themes from the Bible.
We walked up to San Rocco after visiting Accademia, not too far through some little-visited streets of Venice.
The information leaflet provided at San Rocco is very helpful in identifying the subject matter of the various paintings and allegorical carvings.
There are eight paintings by Tintoretto on the ground floor and many more upstairs in the Sala Capitolare and Sala dell'Albergo.
In truth, though the paintings are impressive, I was taken more by the allegorical wooden sculptures by Francesco Pianta below them.
After a late pizza lunch nearby we took the vaporetto back to the hotel.
