Warwick in Venice Reunion
8 - 11 November 2007 /PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME OF EVENTS
Friday 9 November
10.00am - 12.15pm TOUR A
The Rialto Area
with Dr Luca Mola
The significance of the area will be explained as Luca leads the group via the Fondaco dei Tedeschi (now the main post-office of Venice; in former times, the German Merchants’ headquarters) once frescoed by Giorgione and Titian, across the Rialto bridge, past the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi and the little church of SanGiacometto (supposedly the first church to be founded in Venice) and through the Campo San Giacometto (where the public auctions used to be held) to the bustling dairy, fruit and vegetable and fish markets.
Meet: 10.00am by the statue of Goldoni in Campo San Bartolomeo (just off the Rialto Bridge)
Vaporetto stop: Rialto
or
TOUR B
The Scuola Grande di San Marco, the Equestrian Monument to Colleoni and Santa Maria dei Miracoli
with Dr Vicky Avery
Thanks to recent restorations, all three treasures can be properly appreciated for the first time in decades. The tour starts with an examination of the sumptuous, if unorthodox, façade of the Scuola Grande di San Marco (one of the six great philanthropic confraternities of the Republic) before going inside to visit the Sala del Albergo and its breathtaking gilt and polychromed carved wooden ceiling. Back in the campo, Vicky will explain how and why the Colleoni monument was made and give insights into its recent restoration. The tour will finish with a visit to the tiny yet exquisite ‘jewel-box’ church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli, a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture and sculpture by Pietro Lombardo and his workshop.
Meet: 10.00am by the Equestrian Monument to Colleoni in Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo (follow signs to ‘Ospedale’)
Vaporetto stop: either Fondamente Nove or Rialto
12.45pm - 2.15pm Buffet Lunch in the Palazzo Pesaro Papafava
This is an informal buffet-style lunch hosted at the Palazzo Pesaro Papafava, Warwick’s new Teaching and Research Centre. Over lunch you will have an opportunity to go on a tour of Warwick’s facilities in the palace (library, computer room, seminar rooms, garden, etc.) and you will also have the chance to meet some of the current cohort of Warwick undergraduate and postgraduate Historians and Art Historians.
2.45pm - 4.45pm TOUR C
Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista and Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari
with Dr Donal Cooper
The Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista was another of the six great philanthropic confraternities of the Republic and it too spent a great deal of money on embellishing its meeting-house, which is where this tour starts. After visiting its sumptuous interior famed for its grandiose stairway and upper hall, Donal will lead you to the great Franciscan basilica of the Frari to admire a selection of altarpieces and tombs, which rank among the most beautiful and important in Venice.
Meet: 2.15pm at the Palazzo Pesaro Papafava
or
TOUR D
Santi Giovanni e Paolo and the Ospedaletto
with ProfessorJulianGardner
The vast Dominican basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo was the pantheon of the Republic. Julian will guide you around a selection of the most important Gothic and Renaissance tombs and altarpieces, before taking you to the Ospedaletto (Santa Maria dei Derelitti). One of the four great hospitals of Venice, this was famous in its day for its girls’ choir that performed for eminent visitors in the Sala della Musica. This room, with charming frescoes by Jacopo Guarana showing a concert by the girls, was beautifully restored in 1991 by Venice in Peril and is the final port of call.
Meet: 2.15pm at the Palazzo Pesaro Papafava
4.45pm - 6.15pm Free Time
6.15pm - 8.15pm Dinner
at the All’Angelo Restaurant
This is a formal dinner to celebrate the Fortieth Anniversary of Warwick in Venice and will be held at the ‘All’Angelo’, just off Piazza San Marco, in a private room to allow you to mingle and catch up with old friends and to make new acquaintances. Alumni will be treated to pre-prandial drinks before a multi-course dinner during which various informal speeches will be held and reminiscences shared.
8.30pm - 9.30pm TOUR E
(time to be confirmed) ‘After Hours’ Tour of St Mark’s
with Dr Vicky Avery and DrDonalCooper
See San Marco as you’ve never seen it! The mosaic-encrusted interior of the great Byzantine-inspired interior will be illuminated exclusively for you and the Pala d’Oro (the great golden altarpiece) swung round for everyone to admire. There will also be an opportunity to see both the baptistery and crypt that are not normally open to the public.
Meet: 8.00pm in Piazza San Marco by the middle flag-base opposite the Basilica
Vaporetto stop: San Zaccaria
Saturday 10 November
10.00am - 12.15pm TOUR F
The Arsenal
with Dr Luca Mola (to be confirmed)
Luca will lead a tour inside the walls of the Arsenal (normally closed to the public) explaining how and where the Republic’s galleons were made and kitted out with sails, ropes, anchors, guns and supplies, and where the Bucintoro (the Doge’s private barge rowed by 200-oarsmen) was kept.
Meet: 10.00am outside the main entrance of the Arsenal
Vaporetto stop: Arsenale
or
TOUR G
San Francesco della Vigna and the Scuola Grande di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni
with Dr Vicky Avery
The tour commences with a visit to the remote Franciscan church of San Francesco della Vigna (constructed by Jacopo Sansovino and with a monumental façade by Andrea Palladio) to view some little-known artistic treasures, including paintings by Bellini and Veronese and sculptures by the Lombardo workshop and Alessandro Vittoria. After a stroll around the tranquil cloisters, and an amble through some of the characteristic back streets of Castello, the visit continues inside the tiny Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni (the meeting-house of the Dalmatians), which preserves a wonderfully vibrant series of narrative paintings by Vittore Carpaccio (executed in the early 1500s), including perhaps his best known work, St. George Fighting the Dragon.
Meet: 10.00am outside the main entrance of San Francesco della Vigna
Vaporetto stop: Celestia (or Arsenale)
12.15pm - 2.00pm Free Time and Lunch break
2.00pm - 4.00pm TOUR H
Tour of Piazza San Marco
with Dr Vicky Avery
Vicky will explain how Piazza San Marco developed over time from a marshland to its present form, and will discuss the key buildings on the square (the Doges’ Palace, St Mark’s Basilica, Campanile, Mint, Procuratie Vecchie and Nuove, Clock-Tower, Library etc.) in terms of their placement, function, styles and iconographic programmes and how they were used to promote the ‘myth of Venice’. She will then focus on the various sculptures and works of art in bronze that embellish the square, and reveal when, why and how they were made.
Meet: 1.45pm in Piazza San Marco by the middle flag-base opposite the Basilica
Vaporetto stop: San Zaccaria
or
TOUR I
Tour of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco
with Dr Jonathan Davies
The Scuola Grande di San Rocco is the best preserved of the six great charitable confraternities of Venice and its walls and ceilings are completely filled with dramatic canvasses by Jacopo Tintoretto, which for Ruskin made it ‘one of the three most precious buildings in Italy’. After an explanation of the Scuola and its magnificent exterior, Jonathan will lead you round the interior, where you can admire the dazzling bravura of Tintoretto’s technique, and his radical reinterpretations of famous Biblical episodes.
Meet: 1.45pm in front of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco
Vaporetto stop: San Toma
4.00pm - 5.00pm Free Time
5.00pm Doors open at the Palazzo Pesaro Papafava
to allow alumni time to seat themselves before the start of the HonoraryDegree Ceremony
5.30pm - 6.30pm Honorary Degree Ceremony
The Vice Chancellor and Council will confer two honorary degrees at the Ceremony.
One degree is being conferred on Professor Michael Mallett, Commendatore dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana and an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Venetian scholarship and the fact that it was he, together with the late Sir John Hale, who founded the Warwick in Venice Programme in 1967.
The other degree is being conferred on Lady Frances Clarke, President of Venice in Peril, Honorary Citizen of Venice and Commander of the Order of the British Empire, in recognition of her outstanding work in connection with the preservation of the cultural patrimony of Venice and her unstinting support of Warwick in Venice over the past forty years.
6.30pm - 7.30pm Post-Ceremony Reception in the Palazzo Pesaro Papafava
The Honorary Degree Ceremony will be followed by a drinks reception at the PPP, during which you will have a chance to meet Lady Clarke and Professor Mallett and a further opportunity to meet with the current cohort of Warwick students.
7.30pm onwards Free Time
A list of suggested restaurants is attached
Sunday 11 November
10.00am – 12.30pm TOUR J
Walking Tour of Cannaregio
with Dr Vicky Avery and Professor Michael Rosenthal
A tranquil area of the city little known to even seasoned visitors is the focus of this tour, which will include discussion (from the outside) of the old and new Scuola Grande della Misericordia (another of the six great charitable confraternities of Venice), the beautiful Gothic church of the Madonna dell’Orto, Tintoretto’s house and the synagogues, banks, high-rise dwellings and guarded gateways of the Ghetto complex.
Meet: 10.00am inside the entrance of the Palazzo Pesaro Papafava
Vaporetto stop: Ca’ d’Oro
12.30pm End of Official Programme of Events
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