Padua and Venice: Transcultural Exchange in the Early Modern Age (Contact Zones)

The artistic process is not independent of its place of origin. At the same time, aesthetic formulations help shape their surroundings. Padua and Venice are only twenty-three kilometers apart. The lagoon separates the two cities into distinct geopolitical areas. Even today, they look very different. Venice is built into the water on many tiny islands in a lagoon in the northern Adriatic Sea (fig. 1). Padua, by contrast, is located on the mainland, in a plain, the southern Po Plain, at the edge of the Euganean Hills (fig. 2). These topographical locations conditioned distinct histories and developments. Padua was founded by the Romans. By contrast, unlike almost all other important Italian cities, Venice cannot be traced back to a founding in antiquity. On the contrary, only the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the founding of Constantinople and the Eastern Roman Empire on the opposite side of the Mediterranean created the conditions for the topographically complicated collection of small islands to become a world power. Venice’s rise was based on sea travel and the trade routes via the Eastern Mediterranean. Trade with the East brought wealth to the city built on the lagoon. In Venice, people came together from diverse regions and cultures, so that Venice had national associations of Greeks, Turks, Dalmatians, Albanians, Armenians, and Germans as well as a large Jewish community (the origin of the word “ghetto”) to name only some. Whereas in Venice the economy and business-oriented thinking were significant, Padua, with its university founded in 1222, is one of Europe’s oldest university towns, a center for the reception of antiquity and humanist education. Venice and Padua are neighboring cities with a topographical and geopolitical distinction. Venice is a port city in the Venetian Lagoon, which opened up towards Byzantium and the East. Padua on the mainland was founded in Roman times and is a university city, a place of Humanism and research into antiquity. The contributions analyze works of art as aesthetic formulations of their places of origin, which however also have an effect on and expand their surroundings. International experts investigate how these two different concepts stimulated each other in the Early Modern Age, and how the exchange worked. * Works of art as an expression of their places of origin * Contributions from international experts: Sarah Blake McHam, Beverly Louise Brown, Giovanni F.Villa Preface Contents Cultural Transfer in Microcosm The Life of the Virgin at the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua and San Marco, Venice The Eclectic Taste of the Gattamelata Family Calligraphy, Epigraphy, and the Paduan- Venetian Culture of Letters in the Early Renaissance Cultural Exchanges in Venice, for an Artistic “Archive of Memory” Andrea Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini’s Lamentation Altarpiece for Santa Maria dei Servi in Venice The Perplexing Problem of Portraits and Parapets Cassandræ Fidelis venetæ literis clarissimæ in Padua Venetian Affirmation and Urban Tradition in Sixteenth-Century Padua Authors Picture Credits Index Plates

Venice and Padua are neighboring cities with a topographical and geopolitical distinction. Venice is a port city in the Venetian Lagoon, which opened up towards Byzantium and the East. Padua on the mainland was founded in Roman times and is a university city, a place of Humanism and research into antiquity. The contributions analyze works of art as aesthetic formulations of their places of origin, which however also have an effect on and expand their surroundings. International experts investigate how these two different concepts stimulated each other in the Early Modern Age, and how the exchange worked.

Venice and Padua are neighboring cities with a topographical and geopolitical distinction. Venice is a port city in the Venetian Lagoon, which opened up towards Byzantium and the East. Padua on the mainland was founded in Roman times and is a university city, a place of Humanism and research into antiquity. The contributions analyze works of art as aesthetic formulations of their places of origin, which however also have an effect on and expand their surroundings. International experts investigate how these two different concepts stimulated each other in the Early Modern Age, and how the exchange worked.

Venice And Padua Are Neighboring Cities With A Topographical And Geopolitical Distinction. Venice As A Port City Opened Up Towards Byzantium Whereas Padua As A University City Was A Place Of Humanism And Research. The Contributions Analyze Works Of Art As Aesthetic Formulations Of Their Places Of Origin, Which Also Have An Effect On Their Surroundings. International Experts Investigate These Two Concepts And How The Exchange Worked-- Editors Brigit Blass-simmen And Stefan Weppelmann. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. "Venice and Padua are neighboring cities with a topographical and geopolitical distinction. Venice as a port city opened up towards Byzantium whereas Padua as a university city was a place of Humanism and research. The contributions analyze works of art as aesthetic formulations of their places of origin, which also have an effect on their surroundings. International experts investigate these two concepts and how the exchange worked"-- Provided by publisher