In addition to our Dolomites road trip, we've made a few other excursions into the Veneto (and Friuli/Venezia Giulia, today, but in Titian's time all of these were Venetian property). Speaking of regions, I was looking at a regional map of Italy the other day and realized after our time in Bologna/Emilia Romagna next week, I'll I only have a half-dozen or so regions left that I haven't yet visited: Val D'Aosta, Liguria, and Piedmonte in the northwest, Abruzzo and Molise in the southeast (the latter region being the DiMarzo point of origin) and Calabria and Sicily in the far south.
Udine: This was our farthest-flung train trip, over two hours; it wasn't a terribly impressive place and the weather was cold and gloomy, so I was annoyed at having spent 50 euros on the tickets, and more annoyed that even though the train passes through all but Castelfranco of the cities below, we couldn't combine the visits because all museums and churches like to be open for the same 2 or 3-hour scraps of time in the morning and afternoon! The civic museums in Udine are at the top of a tall hill, where the woman selling tickets complimented me first on my Italian and then on my skin when she found out I was almost thirty (I got a discount for being a 'youth' and then for being an art historian!) The collection wasn't terribly impressive, but included some stuccos from Giovanni da Udine's house (he also designed the clocktower in the main piazza after the Venetian one), some paintings by Pomonio Amalteo, brother-in-law to Pordenone, and a "Caravaggio" St. Francis in Ecstasy that is a duplicate of the one in the Wadsworth. The Duomo wasn't open (Sean says the word that grates on me most is chiuso and he is RIGHT).
Castelfranco: Castelfranco is a quaint tiny town whose center still survives with its square walls intact. We walked into the main square just in time to realize a wedding was starting up in the cathedral, which houses Giorgione's altarpiece. We tarried as long as we could in the nearby Casa di Giorgione, not his natal home but rather a house in which he's believed to have painted the incredible frieze depicting books, philosophers, arms, scientific instruments, astrological signs, et. al. Then we hung out in a nearby bar stalking the wedding party until they finally emerged (and it was one of those 100-degree days, I don't know how they weren't all melting!) Finally we were able to get in, and the painting was worth the wait, as were the Veronese fragments from Villa Soranzo kept in the sacristy.
Pordenone: Home to the eponymous painter, Titian's great rival before his untimely death in 1539 (some sources even suggested T poisoned him!) The civic museum, holding a lot of great work, was chiuso for the entire month of August, but it turned out to be for the best, because we could make the most of our limited time in town in the Duomo, which had undergone some 19th or early 20th century remodeling but which proudly displayed its surviving Renaissance and medieval frescos on walls and piers. Pordenone's Madonna della Misericordia adorns the first altar on the left; he also painted the high altarpiece, the baptismal font, and three separate frescos on one of the large piers, including a rather sensual S. Rocco who's considered a self-portrait. There was a jewel of a chapel, the Monreale-Mantica, which had an altarpiece by Amalteo and floor-to-ceiling frescoes by one of his students from the 1550s, depicting the entire life story of Christ and his Mother. I particularly enjoyed how the Risen Christ appears to pop up from the sarcophagus on the wall. Below, covered in centuries of etched graffiti, were roundels containing phrases in support of Mary's purity (the dead woman for whom the chapel was created was evidently a supporter).
Conegliano: We stopped here largely on a whim, having seen the tall hilltop tower from the train, but it was worth it! The Duomo holds Cima da Conegliano's altarpiece painted for his hometown as a bargain, and after a steep uphill climb to the hill, and then seven or eight stories of tower, we had an incredible view over the countryside looking north to the mountains. Photos can never capture the effects of the setting sun on a verdant landscape, with the hazy blue in the distance (or least not a camera like mine). Sean was particularly enraptured!
Treviso: I went there yesterday. The Duomo, once I found it, hosts the Malchiostro chapel, where Pordenone's frescos outshine Titian's later Annunciation altarpiece. I also visited the church of S. Nicolo, with an interesting altarpiece perhaps by Lotto, with the Doubting Thomas on top and some portraits, including the recognizable face of Bishop De Rossi, on the bottom. The civic museum had Titian's painting of Sperone Speroni and a very bloody Bassano crucifixion, but I was forced to actually go through every room (including the archaeological sections on the Neolithic period...) because I was the only person there and the very friendly girl literally walked me through each gallery (partially so she could turn on the lights). When I arrived it was managing to be cold and muggy, by the time I left it was warm and muggy. Treviso is sometimes called the 'little Venice' because it has some canals, but at this point all of these cute, well-to-do northern towns are starting to blend together!
I do enjoy the train rides, though, especially when they're air-conditioned. Coming back over the lagoon, sweeping low over the water on the railroad bridge Henry James called the "back door of Venice" (not in a good way, but probably not in the totally obscene way either) is lovely. However I did note, when we drove in, that one thing you can never see on the train is the campanile of S. Marco, since the body of the train sort of blocks it out. From any other form of approach, though, it's the most dominant part of the skyline.
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