TITIAN & TINTORETTO

Walking the streets of San Marco, Cannaregio, and San Polo, entering some of the churches, reading some of the memorial plaques it will not be difficult to conjure up the careers, passions, loves, friendships, fortunate or tragic events that marked the life of the two great painters, that were colleagues and rivals in Renaissance Venice.

The history of some of their most celebrated works and their intense human experience will be brought back to life, always keeping an eye, of course, at the historical frame (the Council of Trent and the Inquisition, the war against the Ottoman Empire, the Plague in 1575…)

In particular, the itinerary will touch San Salvador (to see Titian’s radiant Annunciation) near St Mark’s Square, and, past the Fondaco dei Tedeschi (where Northern businessmen stayed) the area of San Cancian the neighborhood where Titian lived, not too far from Aretino.

Continuing deeper into Cannaregio, we pass by the Fondamente Nove, the waterfront wherefrom Titian could see his Alps, and, if possible, we have a look at the newly restored Martyrdom of St Lawrence, masterpiece of Titian’s old age.

Finally, we reach Tintoretto’s home and enter the Madonna dell’ Orto Church, where he and his painter daughter, Marietta, were buried and where we can still admire some of his most visionary and enormous canvases (the Final Doomsday, the Miracle of the Golden Calf…)

And then, across the Grand Canal and through the Rialto area, the Church of San Giovanni Elemosinario, where Doge Francesco Dona’ was masterly portrayed by Titian in ‘disguise’, wearing the vest of a saint!