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Russian art is rich in many subjects. Still there is one that is seemingly strange for Russian poetry and painting, but that still pervades all of its history like a golden thread. This topic is Venice.
Tyutchev, Blok, Pasternak, Bunin, Akhmatova, Kushner, Brodsky; Vrubel, Aivazovsky, Benua, Levitan – all these great creators, either in words or in paintings, diligently and recklessly confessed their love for Venice. Why?
This city captivates the Russian heart once and for all. Everything in it seems to be meant for us, everything seems near and dear and strange at the same time. Like St. Petersburg, Venice eternally feasts its eyes on its reflection in the canals. Like Moscow, it is materially and historically rich, and is lit with holiday lights. At the same time, it is a small city of coffee houses (and the Florian, the oldest café in Europe, which great people of all epochs have visited, from Byron and Rousseau to Hemingway and Brodsky), the shelter of small shops and unhurried life. Geographically, Venice is located at the latitude of the Crimea: mild, humid subtropics don’t require any acclimatization. Everything seems to be native to our country… Even the underwater pilings on which the city of Venice stands are made of Russian larch.
Perhaps we love this city so much also because it is the cradle of art. Venice is the home of Vivaldi. To this day, in the main city square, an orchestra regularly recreates the musical spirit of that epoch. A huge opera house invites only the best singers. Premieres of its performances are world-scale events.
Venice is a school of painting. Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto… Small, fragmented into hundreds of islands, Venice determined the development of painting for hundreds of years throughout Europe. Collections of Venetian masters are a world treasury available to every citizen and visitor of the city. No wonder that artists and poets derived inspiration here. There can hardly be anything more beautiful than the magnificent old city, “hovering like a bird between the sky and water”.
The city of canals and lagoons, kingdom of stone and water, where gondolas are just public transport, Venice is unique in its architecture, so that there is hardly a single house that would not be described in art collections. The Doge’s Palace, St. Mark’s Basilica, medieval palazzos, capellas and houses are all reflected in water and remain in your heart forever.
On a clear day, the canals of Venice offer a distinct view of the gray tops of the distant Alps, and the Apennines are seen in the south. By the evening, everything is nebulous because of fog and lanterns are transformed into fireballs, as if a carnival arrives every evening. By the way, this is one more gift from Venice. Thanks to this city, the world learned what impassioned feasts, fairy-tale celebrations of night, masks, fireworks and amazing performances are like, when every carnival participant, the whole city and the whole world change.
The waters of the Adriatic Sea wash the beautiful shores, which are ideal for yacht cruises, beach vacations and, of course, romantic trips.
“One who is young, knows that they love”, said Russian poet Ivan Bunin in his poem about Venice. Hospitable and always young, Venice really knows what love is and is happy to greet any of its guests. But for the Russian heart especially, it always remains something special and native and strangely unfamiliar, like a beautiful woman in a Venetian carnival mask.
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