Monthly Archives: July 2010

When Terry and I were working out the syllabus for spring’s class, we checked the local museums for their upcoming exhibit schedule. LACMA’s  Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915 was one of the exhibits that seemed relevant, since 18th and 19th century Venice are often popularly depicted in film and literature. The Los Angeles Times just published a blurb about the exhibit that shows off two gorgeously ornate men’s jackets. It also notes that the exhibit seems to have been pushed back a month; when we’d first created the syllabus, LACMA had it listed as opening in September; now it seems to be opening in October.

Either way, I encourage students to go; it will be open until April 3, so students taking our class will have ample opportunity to attend during the spring semester and earn some extra credit. I certainly intend to go, probably well before spring; I adore 18th and 19th-century fashion! One of the museums in Venice that we won’t be requiring students to visit, although I found it fascinating and hope some students may end up there on their own, is Museo di Palazzo Mocenigo, a study center for the history of costumes and textiles. It’s a small museum on only one floor of the palazzo but displays several sumptuous Venetian outfits as well as the furniture and decor of the time. Tucked in a rather obscure corner of the city, Palazzo Mocenigo doesn’t get much traffic, but I loved it and its catalog has managed to survive all of my decluttering purges over the last four years!

Photo credit: Man’s jacket, circa 1750-75, Palazzo Mocenigo

Terry and I met for several hours yesterday to go over the Venice itinerary day by day, checking museum and church hours; going over plane, train and vaporetto schedules; and trying to reach a happy balance between requiring students to complete their assignments each day and permitting them sufficient free time to do whatever shopping or exploring they’d like to do on their own. I think it’ll work out pretty well, although getting everyone up for a dawn painting session at Saint Mark’s square may be a challenge!

One of biggest changes we’ll be making at this point is turning the trip to Vicenza into a day trip instead of an overnight trip. We want to visit Palladio’s buildings there, including his famous Villa Almerico-Capra, “La Rotunda.” However, La Rotunda is only open on Wednesdays, and the day our visit had fallen on under the old schedule would have been a Thursday. Moreover, Terry discovered that getting from Vicenza to Florence is something of a public transportation pain in the neck, compared to getting from Venice to Florence.

So, we’ve shifted the Vicenza trip back a day and we’ll plan to return to Venice that night. I think that’ll work out much better for us in the long run. We’ve also made a number of other changes, including plugging in real dates. We’ll post a revised-but-still-tentative itinerary later this month, after we’ve given it another look-through.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.