Venice canal, Wikimedia Commons.
Art Historian and lecturer Jo Walton leads a study afternoon on Venice’s unique story from her rise as trading centre and empire to her current struggle against the threats of tourism and climate change.
Study afternoon - includes two lectures, Q&A and a coffee break. Tickets £20
Lecture One: Building the Serene Republic
Venice is one of Europe’s most popular tourist destinations and a World Heritage Site. But she has always been one of the world’s most brilliant trading nations; a great maritime power whose sailors and explorers crossed the globe, while her merchants, painters and musicians (not to mention courtesans), set standards of luxury and pleasure unknown elsewhere. This lecture explores the architecture and fabric of the city, rising from unpromising mudflats in a murky lagoon and overcoming remarkable technological challenges, to become one of the most beautiful and powerful nations of Renaissance Europe.
Coffee break (15 minutes)
Lecture Two: Baroque and Beyond
This second talk explores the baroque city and follows the story as Venice’s power base collapsed. Transforming herself into a city of pleasure and becoming a playground for the rich allowed some level of survival until, with Napoleon’s dissolution of the thousand-year old Venetian Republic, Venice fell into a long decline. But that is by no means the end of the story. Over recent decades Venice has once again faced invading armies and insidious dangers and this time the armies are made up of tourists and the dangers come from the waters of her own lagoon. Jo Walton looks at some of the ways in which Venice has tried to cope, and at the ideas and strategies put forward to halt her gradual descent beneath the waves.
Proceeds from our ticket sales benefit museums, galleries and other arts-based organisations and projects.
This is an online event hosted on Zoom which can be watched live, or on-demand for three weeks afterwards. You will receive your link to access the event in your email confirmation and the on-demand link after the event ends.