After an afternoon wandering through pavilions in the Giardini which were variously political, it was a pleasure to walk into the Japanese Pavilion which is about pure visual pleasure, a complex piece of blood red lattice work holding up an infinite collection of keys: if symbolic, not political, but about life experiences sublimated:-
We visited the workshop of Luigi Bevilacqua, which still has fourteen looms from the eighteenth century where they handweave velvets, damasks and brocades to historic patterns. It may just be preserved as a historic relic, but what a relic:-
We went into the backstreets of Cannaregio to visit Orsoni, an old established industrial manufacturer of mosaics, with an amazing library of mosaic glass, every colour except fuschia:-
I thought I should pay my respects to S. Marco and to hear the band play at Florian’s, but I spent my time instead examining the sculptural decoration on the Procuratie Nuove, begin by Scamozzi in 1586 when the Empire was already in decline:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 