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**Sources:**
- (photo Alinari)
- (v. S. Giorgio uccide il drago, Affresco (fine sec. XIV-inizio sec. XV). Verona, basilica di S. Zeno Maggiore).
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**Painting:**
Sixteenth-century sculpture in the Veneto, which developed in the wake of the Lombard school, received fresh impetus from Jacopo Sansovino, a Tuscan, whom Vasari justly credits with facility, sweetness, grace, and a certain *leggiadria*. Besides the statues of the Loggetta, he left the Venier monument and the Giants of the homonymous staircase (works from his school). Among his followers were Danese Cattaneo, Tiziano Minio, the highly refined bronze sculptor Tiziano Aspetti, G. Campagna of Verona, and A. Vittoria of Trent, who dominated in Venice with a marked tendency toward painterly effects of light and shadow.
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**Painting:**
Toward the end of the 16th century, Vincenzo Scamozzi, a most learned theorist, disseminated through his works an academicism that stifled the natural development of Renaissance architecture in the Veneto. The first to return to tradition was
In the 18th century, painting once again began to regain primacy through the efforts of Armigoni, G. A. Pellegrini, and S. Ricci. Piazzetta (v.) who, suddenly opening the doors to the 18th century, brought to Venetian painting the essential will and sense of a style that signified plastic construction, linear severity, chromatic concision—almost a simplification of the palette to a few tones, reducing it to an energetic interplay of light and shadow (Pallucchini). Within his orbit, the activity of G. B. Tiepolo (v.) began, who later, through Ricci, drew upon the manner of Paolo Veronese. In the orbit of G. B. Tiepolo and S. Ricci, lesser but still valid contributions came from G. B. Pittoni, F. Fontebasso, G. B. Cignaroli, and in the field of decorative painting from G. Diziani, J. Mareschi, Zugno, Guarana, the Paduan Crosato, and finally Novelli. Around Piazzetta were gathered G. Angeli, Cappella, the two Maggiotto brothers, and the Dalmatian Filippo Bencovich, whose fame spread across Europe especially through engravings. A profound and acute interpreter of 18th-century Venice was Pietro Longhi, who in his small canvases captured episodes of daily life in a society on the wane. His son Alessandro became celebrated as a portraitist; in this genre, Rosalba Carriera achieved immense fame with her pastels. In the 18th century, the school of Venetian *vedutisti* was particularly important in Venice and the Veneto, founded by the Friulian L. Carlevaris; in his workshop Canaletto began his career, though his painting was influenced by the Swede Richter. From Canaletto derives his nephew Bernardo Bellotto. Whereas in Canaletto “the pictorial realization is mediated by perspectival framing,” Guardi’s painting developed on entirely different premises. In him, the relationship between figure and space is essentially pictorial: “he creates an atmospheric, pulverized light within which form is as if dispersed, immersed in the very nature of light” (Pallucchini).
Baldassare Longhena, a pupil of Scamozzi, whose Baroque language carried to their extreme those elements of painterliness already present in Palladio, Sansovino, and Sammicheli (Palazzo Belloni-Battaglia, the church of the Salute, Ca’ Pesaro, Ca’ Rezzonico, the cathedral of Chioggia, the interior of the Scalzi, the School of San Giorgio dei Greci and dei Carmini, the staircase of San Giorgio Maggiore, Villa Rezzonico at Bassano, and Widmann at Bagnoli, etc.), had no true followers.
In the 17th century, painting in Venice suffered a setback: the epigones of the great Venetians either limited themselves to imitation of the masters or were drawn to commonplace Mannerism or continued to exploit Titian’s colorism. Yet even in this period, “Europe spoke in painting a single tongue, the Venetian.” In Venice and the Veneto, the authentic tradition regained value especially through the work of foreign artists: D. Fetti, who exerted great influence even on G. Liss, a German who worked in Venice in those same years (until 1630), bringing painting to a great freedom united with refined stylistic preciosity. In 1630, B. Strozzi arrived in Venice (from Genoa), who, inheriting from Fetti, clarified the qualities of his extravagant temperament. The liveliest strand of the Venetian tradition continued with F. Maffei (Vicenza), S. Mazzoni, Mola, Ruschi, Zanchi, and Langetti.
In this period, sculpture developed as decoration: at the Salute, many craftsmen worked under the guidance of the Fleming Giusto Le Court. Sculptors from every Italian city came to work in Venice: Parodi (Genoa), Mazza (Bologna), the Frenchman Perreau, and the Germans Weyering (San Moisè) and Barthel (Pesaro monument in the Frari). All ended up adopting local painterly modes.
In the 18th century in Venice, architecture returned to the manner of the *allemandeschi*; majestic five-tiered exteriors corresponded to light, capricious Rococo interiors. G. Massari (first half of the 18th century) was the architect of Palazzo Grassi, the churches of the Fava and the Jesuits. Also noteworthy are T. Temanza (church of the Maddalena) and A. Tiralì (church of San Vitale and the pronaos of the Tolentini).
Among the sculptors of the 18th century, mention should be made of Marchiori, Bonazza, and Morlaiere, who continued the sensitive painterly tradition of the Venetians. In the same milieu, A. Canova was trained, who would later become the foremost exponent of the Neoclassical movement.
In the 19th century, the coloristic tradition continued within the limits of provincial anecdote; yet certain figures stand out with notable personalities and belong to the history of Italian painting of the time: G. Favretto, Hayez (of Lombard training), M. Grigoletti, G. Ciardi, whose ties with the Macchiaioli gave his work greater vitality, L. Nono, A. Milesi, Zandomeneghi, who emigrated to Paris and was influenced by the Impressionists. Among sculptors, special mention must be made of Selva, Dal Zotto, and especially Borro.
Among contemporaries, the leading painter is G. Rossi, and the most important sculptor is A. Martini of Treviso, who, through varied experiences, decisively influenced modern Italian sculpture.
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### III. VENEZIA GIULIA
Between the 7th and 8th centuries, the region came under Lombard rule. At Cividale, which was the Lombard capital of Friuli, the oratory of Santa Maria in Valle remains an outstanding monument of this period, built probably under the patriarchate of St. Paulinus, with Roman and Byzantine elements; it features marvelous stuccoes and frescoes contemporary with the stuccoes. In the local archaeological museum and in the cathedral are preserved fragments with Roman, barbarian, and prehistoric monuments, as well as important works of art from later periods. In the wells of Cittanova d’Istria, aside from classical decorative motifs, one finds depictions of animals of vigorous imagination, a prelude to Roman art, which did not bring as many changes to functional elements as to decorative ones. Among the buildings to note are the three-aisled Sant’Anastasia in Zara (13th century) with capitals of various styles, San Lorenzo del Pasenatico, and the basilica of Muggia Vecchia.
