On Friday 22 March, a group of sixteen keen art historians left parents’ morning ever so slightly early to catch a flight to Venice in the capable hands of Ms Cordingley and Mr Nolan. Having successfully got through the journey to Italy unscathed, without losing any bags or boys, the group were taken by boat from mainland Italy to the island of Venice. Full of anticipation at seeing the illuminated city (a pleasant contrast to the grey corridors of Gatwick), we settled into our hotel – a converted fifteenth century monastery.
After beginning each day with the ideal Italian breakfast of coffee and cake we set off early, travelling around the city by vaporetto or following the speedy figure of Mr Nolan (definitely the fastest and most animated walker in all of Venice). At points, we would stop and hear a succinct but illuminating explanations of a part of Venetian life, or hear details about a particular building or artwork. Although Venice is infamous for its hordes of tourists all cramming for a selfie, we saw next to none due to our expertly planned itinerary, and often had the coloured streets all to ourselves.
Inevitably, given that this was a History of Art trip, we worked our way through twelve of the city’s churches. One of the best in my opinion was the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari – where not only Titian and Canova are buried but Giovanni Bellini’s Frari Triptych (1488) creates such convincing sense of depth it genuinely seems to be a statue at first sight. In addition, our visit to Basilica di San Marco was particularly memorable as we observed mass on Palm Sunday under its glittering mosaic domes. Furthermore, we won’t forget our ascent of the campanile of San Giorgio Maggiore from which you could enjoy 360-degree views of the city.
But the churches were by no means the only part of culture in which we were immersed. We were given a tour of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection which is housed in a half-built palazzo on the Grand Canal. The collection is now worth over three billion dollars and you were made to almost feel faint at the sheer number of stunning paintings by Picasso, Pollock, Dalí and Kandinsky (just to name a few).
On the last day, our final outing was to the enormous collection of art at the Academia where each boy had been asked to give a presentation on a painting. These presentations were judged by Mr Nolan, Ms Cordingley and the surprise guest of Mr Gibbons! The deserving winners were Finnian P and Hugo T (the former had seemingly and impressively memorised the entire Wikipedia page on Titian’s Pietà)!
Given that we were in Italy, food was of course a significant aspect of the trip. We were treated to all the delights of Venetian cuisine including three course meals of pork from the surrounding countryside and fresh fish caught barely a mile away.
We were blessed with glorious sunshine throughout, apart from the last day when the rain perhaps made it a little easier to leave. We returned having deepened our knowledge and passion for the subject.
