Review: Seeing Venice
One of the most popular paintings in the Getty Museum is View of the Grand Canal by Bernardo Belloto. It is a huge painting (53¼ x 91¼ inches) and it depicts a typical day in the Venice of 1740. Seeing Venice: Bellotto’s Grand Canal is a small book (both in size and length) dedicated to this beautiful painting. It contains an essay by Mark Doty and close-up views of sections of the canvas. Mark Doty is a poet and memoirist and he does a wonderful job of analyzing and describing the painting. He says:
And so this must be one of the few three-hundred-year-old canvases in the world which one could place exactly in the spot where it was painted and see, in essence the same space.
Since there isn’t a picture of the whole painting in the book, the dust jacket folds out to reveal the entire thing. Reading the essay and seeing the painting makes me want to go to Venice so I would recommend this charming book to lovers of art and Italy.
Check out Wendi’s excellent review here.
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Sounds like a good one. I’m hoping to get to Italy one of these days.
Kathy, I’d love to go to Venice (who wouldn’t???) We actually had a trip booked several years ago, but had to cancel it and never have rescheduled. One of these days!
Nice review. This book looks great.
This looks like a wonderful book. I’m with Shana, who wouldn’t want to go to Venice someday.
Interesting idea to write a book inspired by a painting (I’m sure it’s not the first… lol.. but I’m not much of an art person, so it’s the first I’ve heard of). Great googley-moogley… I’ll have to win the lottery (or publish my best seller… hehehehe) to have enough money to visit all the places in the world I want to see.
Pembrokeshire, Wales, though, is first on my list :-D. That’s where my family’s from. Sterling, Scotland is second on my list, also where part of my family is from.
Kathy, I just got this beautiful book in the mail yesterday! I can’t wait to look through it with my husband. He suggested that we read it together.
We can dream about a vacation to Italy!
Sounds like a terrific book for the armchair traveler! 🙂 My husband is a big Italophile & I’d love to get there someday!
This sounds like a lovely book. I like the fact that the dust jacket unfolds to show you the entire painting.
This looks like a good one. I remember seeing it around. I didn’t get to Venice on my trip to Italy this summer. Bummer.
This really sounds lovely. And Venice is definitely on my “to visit someday” list.
We took our first trip overseas to Italy this past spring and Venice was our first stop and favorite city. I’m looking forward to checking out the book. Thanks for recommending it Kathy!
This sounds like a lovely little book! Appropriate for those who’ve visited Venice, those who are planning a trip, and those who dream of it.
Thanks for the review!
I love art books! What I wouldn’t give to figure out how to convince a publisher to send me one of those gigantic art history tomes to review!
Great review – I just received this book, and will be posting a review shortly!
🙂 Wendi
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Please reply with your address so I can forward your information to Hachette Book Group, who will send you a brand new book!!
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I’ve always wanted to go to Venice. First, though, I need to get over my fear of flying. LOL This looks like a great book!
I was fortunate to travel to Italy last year with my family, and Venice was definitely one of the most amazing places I’ve ever seen. All of the photos we have from our trip to Europe feature me with some sort of awestruck, dazed expression! This book sounds very interesting; I like Mark Doty, too.
This makes me want to go to Venice too. In the meantime I will just settle for the book.
I’ve got my review up
here and I’ve added a link to your review.
🙂 Wendi
Thanks for the link Kathy!! I am just starting to look through the makeup books by Bobbi Brown and Carmindy – they are great so far!! 🙂