ART/S for Meeting, Communicating, Sharing
What a pleasure it was to sketch the Hotel Ausonia Hungaria and its Art Nouveau features on the Lido of Venice! But above all, to have sketched as part of a group with the wonderful Venetian Urban Sketchers!
The bow of a gondola – Venice Lido – Hotel Ausonia – 0702026
VENEZIA – From JOHN RUSKIN
pencil and watercolor
13 x 10,5 cm
2026
A watercolour painted quickly in Venice, in front of the Ponte dei Pugni, from a sketch by John Ruskin.
Ruskin, as can be clearly seen, was also on a gondola and therefore his viewpoint was very low, much lower than the view usually enjoyed by those walking on the fondamenta.
I often use this drawing in my drawn art history lessons for this reason. The point of view is important. Observers in the past were different from us, and if it is true that space is produced by the observer, Venice is a place that allows us to reflect on this concept.
Like Ruskin, whom we imagine sitting in a gondola with a sketchbook and the minimum tools needed to paint his watercolours, or using only a pencil in three colours: a bluish grey, blue for the sky (created using the wet-on-wet technique) and a few touches of orange-ochre.
VALSANZIBIO MONUMENTAL GARDEN
Photographs
Digital retouching
2025
For this new year, I intend to work on image composition, not only in terms of geometry and balance, but also by exploring light and colour. That is why, on a beautiful day in December, I was able to visit this beautiful garden, which is over 350 years old, at my leisure and take some pictures.
It is a place designed as an allegorical walk to convey a positive message to visitors, of a life where difficulties are faced and where there is always a solution, a life where it is good to stop and meditate from time to time, a life where time is precious and should be lived intensely, with joy.
It was built between 1665 and 1696 by one of the richest and most important Venetian families, the Barbarigo family, as a vow to defeat the plague of 1630/31.
In this garden there is a boxwood maze over 400 years old, probably the oldest of its kind in the world, and there are boxwood walls up to 5 metres high, unique in the world. There are trees ranging from 300 to 900 years old, centuries-old specimens from four continents (Asia, America, Africa and Europe).
The intention of the owners, the Pizzoni Ardemani family, is to protect and preserve this historical, artistic and botanical heritage.
Visitors and companies who come and will come to Valsanzibio provide concrete and valuable help in maintaining this World Heritage Site.
(Text: partly from https://www.valsanzibiogiardino.com)
My friend Christophe Austruy says it well, that the figure of the lion of St. Mark in Venice reflects a powerful and warlike character.
Venice’s political and military power (…). The traditional image we have of the lion is in profile, holding an open book. A beautiful, strong, muscular lion… . There are, however, many lions at rest or asleep, like the one sculpted by Canova in the Accademia galleries.
I, too, was inspired by this peaceful, but always alert, version in my sketchbook made at EHESS – Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales last year and which I am preparing for an edition.
It will be the theme of war and peace, so topical and dramatic, that will engage us for the next year of research. For my part, I will continue to experiment with my research model by drawing the images that we will be analysing together.
*Questo leone dormiente fa parte del progetto di monumento che poi fu realizzato in San Pietro a Roma.
Dettagli
Titolo: Monumento a Papa Clemente XIII – Leone Dormiente
Creatore: Antonio Canova
Data: 1784
Data di creazione: 1784
Materiale: gesso
*Image: Gypsotheca e Museo Antonio Canova
Workshop at the EHESS – École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales / Centre de Recherches Historiques – Paris
Organisé par Christophe Austruy (EHESS-CNRS, Centre de Recherches Historiques)
Giovanna Corazza (Università Ca’ Foscari – Venezia / University of Notre Dame, MSCA Fellow)
Maurice Aymard (EHESS/MSH) : Introduction
Jean-Charles Ducène : Venise chez les géographes arabes
Nathalie Bouloux : «Il primato di Venezia» dans les études géographiques aux XIVe et XVe siècles
Christophe Austruy
L’Arsenale Vecchio, l’Arsenale Novo e la Tana nella pianta di Fra’ Paolino.
Ipotesi sull’Arsenale di Venezia all’inizio del XIV secolo
Anna Pegoretti
A nord di Venezia: Dante cartografo e le Alpi centro-orientali
Theodore J. Cachey Jr.
Il cosmo di Dante: automappature ed esilio
The updated satellite image shows us a mysterious encounter on the island of Poveglia.
Twenty-one boats moored in neat groups.
An encounter of rowers? (More likely) a pcnic?
Stefano Zago – Poveglia Diaries – Poveglia per tutti – Save the ilands of Venice’s lagoon
Free drawings made during a meeting of the Poveglia per tutti Association. The association is committed to the defence of the island of Poveglia, in the Venice lagoon.
