Tuesday 18 March 2014

The papery look of a marble facade.... and images from a War

St Mark's is another place that is far to complex to comprehend on one visit. I remember from before, particularly in the rain, the wonderful marble panels on the exterior walls.
Mary McCarthy (to quote yet again) gets this just right.

"The marble veneers of St Mark's sides, especially when washed by the rain so that they look like oiled silk, are among the most beautiful things in Venice. And it is their very thinness, the sense they give of being a mere lustrous coating, a film, that makes them beautiful. A palace of solid marble, rain washed, simply looks bedraggled."

She also says - can this be true? It must be! She wrote for the New Yorker! Our nameless hero in Bright Lights, Big City (a fact checker) would surely agree - that Allied command officially 'captured' Venice with a fleet of gondolas. Something to research - surely.
But a lovely picture of troops on St Mark's square from the Imperial War Museum.

Reading and watching

  • Foot by Foot to Santiago de Compostela/Judy Foot
  • The Testament of Mary with Fiona Shaw at the Barbican
  • The Testament of Mary/Colm Toibin
  • Schwanengesang/Schubert - Tony Spence
  • Journals/Robert Falcon Scott
  • Fugitive Pieces/Ann Michaels
  • Unless/Carol Shields
  • Faust/Royal Opera House
  • The Art of Travel/Alain de Botton
  • Mad Men Series 6
  • A Week at The Airport/Alain de Botton
  • The Railway Man/Eric Lomax
  • Bright Lights, Big City/Jay McInerney
  • Stones of Venice/John Ruskin
  • The Sea, the Sea/Iris Murdoch
  • Childe Harold/Lord Byron
  • All The Pretty Horses/Cormac McCarthy
  • Extreme Rambling/Mark Thomas
  • Story of my Life/Jay McInerney
  • Venice Observed/Mary McCarthy