St. Augustine and His Dog in Venice

Willard Spiegelman, the editor-in-chief of the Southwest Review at SMU in Dallas,writes about Vittore Carpacio's Cycle for the Scuola de San Giorgio Degli Schiavoni in Venice for The Wall Street Journal's Masterpiece column. I thoroughly appreciate and agree with his first paragraph:

After a first visit, every tourist to a famous place begins to turn from the hot spots, the three-star must-sees and the crowds—to yearn for intimacy, something out of the way. Nowhere is this quest more natural or essential than in Venice. Forget St. Mark’s Square, the Doge’s Palace and the Rialto. Forget Murano and its glass. Look for the big rewards that come from small packages.

Between the Bellini family, which came before him, and Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese, who followed, the most important Venetian artist was Vittore Carpaccio (1465-1525). He bridged the turn to the new century. His large cycle depicting the legend of St. Ursula is one of the prizes of the Accademia. (These rooms were closed on the days I visited the museum, owing to “weather,” whatever that meant.) But for sheer intensity, variety, elegance and charm, nothing can beat his nine paintings that hang above eye level, beneath a coffered ceiling on the ground floor—they were on the second story until a mid-16th-century rearrangement—of the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, the Dalmatian Confraternity. This lovely spot is both a (long) stone’s throw and a world away from bustling Piazza San Marco.

"After a first visit" assumes that the tourist or traveler goes back to the same city again to see it beyond the tourist's highlights--something about the city or location is so attractive that we want to go back and explore further.

St. Augustine in his study receives a vision of St. Jerome as the latter dies. He stops writing, looks out the window--and his little dog looks up at him, wondering what's outside. As Spiegelman concludes:

We are not in north Africa in the fifth century. We are in Venice, at the turn of the 16th. La Serenissima is the queen of the Adriatic, the point of contact between the riches of the Orient and the western Mediterranean. The Renaissance has begun.

A Concert Not to Be Missed!--But I'll Miss It!!

The New Liturgical Movement blog highlights this concert:

A concert not to be missed: 'Splendours of Venice' is an opportunity to hear the Choir of Westminster Cathedral join forces with His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts in a celebration of choral and instrumental music by composers with strong Venetian associations. Monteverdi, Giovanni Gabrieli, Croce, Merulo, Hassler, Grillo, Frescobaldi and Guami are all represented, and Motets in 4, 8, 12 and 16 parts are interspersed with movements from Monteverdi's Mass (published in 1651), his five-part Beatus vir and eight-part Magnificat. Westminster Cathedral is the perfect setting, its Byzantine styling very much a visual echo of San Marco, and the siting of singers in the galleries and the use of the Cathedral's organs will provide dramatic effect.

Full programme:

Iubilate Deo, Giovanni Gabrieli
Gloria (1651 Mass), Monteverdi
Toccata quarta del secondo tuono (Primo libro), Merulo
Beatus vir, Monteverdi
Canzon Terza à 8, Grillo
In spiritu humilitatis, Croce
Hassler Canzon Duodecimitoni à 8, Hassler
Sanctus (1651 Mass), Monteverdi
Toccata Cromaticha per l'Elevatione (Messa della Domenica - Fiori Musicali), Frescobaldi
Agnus Dei (1651 Mass), Monteverdi
O sacrum convivium, Hassler
Canzon La Lucchesina à 8, Guami
Magnificat a 8, Monteverdi
Canzon Terza à 6, Giovanni Gabrieli
Plaudite omnis terra, Giovanni Gabrieli
Omnes gentes plaudite, Giovanni Gabrieli

The Jacobite Pretender and the Venetian Conclave of 1799-1800

Yesterday, March 11 (NS) was the birthday of the last direct-line Stuart Pretender, Henry Benedict Stuart. Since the Papal Conclave of 2013 began today, however, and Henry Cardinal Stuart was among the Cardinal electors in Venice during the extraordinary Conclave of 1799-1800, I thought I would highlight his career again today.

Henry Benedict Stuart was the second son of the Old Pretender, James Francis Edward Stuart, who was recognized by his supporters as James III and VIII, King of England, Ireland and Scotland, and James III's wife Princess Maria Klementyna Sobieska. Henry was born on March 11, 1725 at the Palazzo Muti in Rome and baptized by Pope Benedict XIII the same day. Henry supported his brother Charles Edward Stuart, aka the Young Pretender, aka "Bonnie Prince Charlie" during this attempt to recover the throne of England, Ireland and Scotland from George I in 1745, but afterwards became a priest, bishop, and cardinal in the Church.

The French Revolution of 1789 hurt Cardinal Stuart financially, as did his support of Pope Pius VI, who was captured and deposed by Napoleon Bonaparte's forces in 1798 and died in Valence, France in 1799. Along with several other cardinals, Henry Stuart fled first to Naples and then to Venice, where the Conclave finally met and took quite some time to elect the next pope. According to this site, which gives many details of these events, "The Conclave had lasted three months and fourteen days, the vacancy six months and sixteen days."

The Conclave met in the Benedictine monastery of San Giorgio, located on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore--the monastery would be suppressed in 1806, and is now the headquarters of the Cini Foundation, which has restored it. Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti, who had been a Benedictine monk (named Gregory) was finally elected on March 14, 1800 and crowned, wearing a papier mache tiara decorated with jewel stones donated by the other cardinals, in the monastery church. He took the name Pius, becoming the VIIth pope with that name.

In the meantime, Cardinal Stuart's financial difficulties were addressed with a 4,000 pound annuity from King George III and he eventually returned to his diocese in Frascati. He later became Dean of the College of Cardinals in 1803 and died in Frascati in 1807.