Venice: City of Pictures

by Martin Gayford

Venice was a major centre of art in the the city where the medium of oil on canvas became the norm. The achievements of the Bellini brothers, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese are a key part of this story. Nowhere else has been depicted by so many great painters in so many diverse styles and moods. Venetian views were a speciality of native artists such as Canaletto and Guardi, but the city has also been represented by J. M. W. Turner, Claude Monet, John Singer Sargent, Howard Hodgkin, and many more.Then there are those who came to look at and write about art. The reactions of Henry James, George Eliot, Richard Wagner and others enrich this tale. Nor is the story over. Since the advent of the Venice Biennale in the 1890s, and the arrival of pioneering modern art collector Peggy Guggenheim in the late 1940s, the city has become a shop window for the contemporary art of the whole world, and it remains the site of important artistic events.In this elegant volume, Gayford who has visited Venice countless times since the 1970s, covered every Biennale since 1990, and even had portraits of himself exhibited there on several occasions takes us on a visual journey through the past five centuries of the city known La Serenissima, the Most Serene. It is a unique and compelling portrait of Venice that will delight lovers of the city and lovers of its art.

Genres: Art, History, Italy, Nonfiction

464 pages, Paperback

Published July 8, 2025

About the author

Martin Gayford is an art critic and art historian. He studied philosophy at the University of Cambridge, and art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London. Over three decades, he has written prolifically about art and music in a series of major biographies, as well as contributing regularly to newspapers, magazines and exhibition catalogues. In parallel with his career as an art historian, he was art critic of The Spectator magazine and The Sunday Telegraph newspaper before becoming Chief Art Critic for the international television network, Bloomberg News. He has been a regular contributor to the British journal of art criticism, Modern Painters.

His books include a study of Van Gogh and Gauguin in Arles, The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles (Little Brown, 2006), which was published in Britain and the USA to critical acclaim, and has been translated, to date, into five languages; Constable in Love: Love, Landscape, Money and the Making of a Great Painter (Penguin, 2009), a study of John Constable’s romance with Maria Bicknell and their lives between 1809 and 1816; and A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney (Thames and Hudson, 2011).

Reviews

[William Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will read anything Martin Gayford writes and this was no exception! I love Venice even more than I did before!

[Peter Dierinck · Rating 4 out of 5]

ik lees dit boek terwijl ik in Venetië ben en het heeft ervoor gezorgd dat ik niet alleen enkele mooie, minder bekende, plaatsen ontdekte maar ook minder bekende kunstenaars zoals de schilder Giambattista Piazzetta. Op zoek naar werk van hem bezocht ik de kerk aan Zattere en de Scuola Grande dei Carmini (aan campo Santa Margarita) Door dit boek ontdekte ik ook de kunstenares Giulia Lama, tijdgenoot van Piazzetta, die in 1722 een altaarstuk voor de kerk Santa Maria Formosa schilderde. Jammer genoeg zit dit bijzondere schilderij wat weggestopt ook als de kerkwachter je de toestemming heeft gekeken eventjes voorbij een koord te stappen. Ik ben erg dankbaar voor dit boek die ervoor zorgt dat ik in deze mooie stad steeds weer op ontdekking kan gaan.

[Edie Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gayford shares his love for Venice in this marvelous book about art and the city. He gives you a good feel for the people behind the paintings and brings them down to earth. He discusses their backgrounds, their spots in the artistic community, what made their works special, and how these men and women relate to their patrons and each other. They are placed in the context of their periods. All this is done in a pleasant conversational manner.

The book is not limited to one particular time. The reader travels from the 16th century to the present. In the later chapters it switches from the art of the city to art inspired by the city. We also meet renowned collectors and critics.

Likewise the book covers more than just painting. Its material ranges from architecture to performance art. The author also includes pertinent information on theater, poetry and opera.

As a finale we see the sponsorship of the Venice Biennial, where one can see some of the best of contemporary art. It’s more than enough to make you want to run out and buy a ticket to Italy.

Beautiful colored photographs accompany the text. Regrettably their small size makes it difficult to see details. A good magnifying glass (mine has a light on it) solves this problem.

[Simon Dobson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A history of Venetian art from the 15th century onwards. This covers the golden era of Venice as a centre for painting and sculpture that exported its style, technique, and artists throughout Italy and beyond.

The focus is sufficiently narrow to let a reader with only a fairly superficial knowledge of art history (like me) to see the progression in the styles and concerns of the artists being profiled. Moving from Bellini to Giorgone to Titian to Tintoretto, with copious illustrations, makes their relationships clear in ways that broader histories obscure.

There are some deep dives into specific pictures, such as Veronese's Last supper, plus consideration of the city itself as a stage for art, and the role of women artists who achieved a surprising (for the period) fame and appreciation amongst collectors. The history is brought up to date by considering how modern artists have painted Venice, as well as the impact that the biennalle has had on the careers of recent artists.

All in all this is a fabulous book, gorgeously illustrated, with chapters self-contained enough to be dipped-into, but with depths that capture how artists and their art evolve over their own lifetimes.

[Carlton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each short chapter of this book is entertaining, full of information and anecdotes about artists and paintings, but for me this initially formed a collage that was just brightly coloured, not cohering to reveal anything more substantial. I was therefore dissatisfied, although I liked the constituent parts.

However, as I read on, with the book set at a fast pace through the centuries, I gave up my preconceptions of what the book should be and enjoyed the magpie brio of Gayford’s selection of highlights from Venice’s artistic history. As well as painters, sculptors and architects, later chapters also include complementary references to writers, composers and film makers.
Really enjoyable.

I read the Kindle version of the book and the illustrations of the paintings are good and easily linked to the text.

[Nicholas Cantacuzene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought at lost city books during the annual sale because I had been admiring the cover for months.
Somehow not what I expected and it wasn’t as informative as a textbook nor as engaging (with a few exceptions) as a nonfiction book that is trying to be more readable.
Pretty disappointing and a lot of it felt like a slog or like I should skip entire pages at a time. A few good nuggets in there and a decent amount of discussion of the image of Venice vs identity.

The few pieces of art that were mentioned and then not shown kill me!!

[Daniel Gusev · Rating 5 out of 5]

An encyclopaedic transition into a world of art inspired and formed by a struggle for political and religious freedom - that informed the often radical progression of the art toolset: exposed in frescoes, tavolas and architecture.

Gayford monumental biography of Michelangelo almost eclipsed by this meticulous study providing the intellectual and social background of numerous paintings one can discover in Venice and on Venice.

[josé almeida · Rating 5 out of 5]

biografia-maravilha sobre uma cidade, com base nos seus quadros. não apenas com base nos artistas que ali nasceram e viveram, mas também em todos os que a visitaram e pintaram. no fim resulta uma espécie de história de arte circunscrita mas em que os detalhes e anedotas são universais. e - cereja no topo do bolo - muito bem escrita, informativa, formativa e divertida. imprescindível.

[Helen Mears · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. I know an awful lot about Florentine artists and art and very little about their Venetion counterparts. Ahead of my next trip to the city, I wanted to correct that. This is a very readable yet comprehensive and detailed account of Venice's art and its relationship with the city.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Martin Gayford’s views and style, and this book was no exception, except, that so far it was my least favourite of all of them. I liked the early parts, but maybe after Veronese it was no longer that interesting to me. I would like to go to Venice again though, it’s been a long time.

[Piper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Long live the collaboration between Martin Gayford and Thames & Hudson

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A glorious book, as lavish and spectacular a production as the unique city deserves and demands. Gayford’s prose yet again is lucid and well paced, full of insight and biographical anecdote.

[Sembray · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

As well as being possibly my favourite city both in terms of history and as a destination, Venice has left an indelible impact on the history of painting and the arts. This fantastic book demonstrates the role the city in the lagoon played thanks to gorgeous illustrations and Gayford's erudite yet accessible writing style. As well as covering artists of the Venetian school such as Tintoretto (my favourite painter), Titian, Veronese, Bellini, Tiepolo and Guardi, the author also explains the status of the city as a beacon of artistic inspiration. Everyone from Monet and Sargent to Klee and Dürer has visited and been transfixed by the city over its long and illustrious history. This book illuminates these disparate artists' contributions to Venice's image and history as well as how the city inspired them to produce some of their finest works. Gayford also uses examples from other media, such as film, opera, poetry and fashion, in addition to colourful characters ranging from Byron to Napoleon, to paint a compelling picture of Venice as a unique city which remains a vital centre of the artistic world into the 21st century. Institutions such as the Guggenheim and the Biennale will continue to shine a light on the past, present and future of this floating open-air art museum, and this book presents a perfect overview of the city's history and the artists who have done so much to burnish its reputation.