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Venice Observed
A penetrating work of reportage on Venice. “Searching observations and astonishing comprehension of the Venetian taste and character” (New York Herald Tribune).
158 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
72 people are currently reading
654 people want to read
About the author
Mary McCarthy
133 books304 followersPeople note American writer Mary Therese McCarthy for her sharp literary criticism and satirical fiction, including the novels
The Groves of Academe
(1952) and
The Group
(1963).
McCarthy studied at Vassar college in Poughkeepsie, New York and graduated in 1933. McCarthy moved to city of New York and incisively wrote as a known contributor to publications such as the Nation, the New Republic, and the New York Review of Books. Her debut novel, The Company She Keeps (1942), initiated her ascent to the most celebrated writers of her generation; the publication of her autobiography Memories of a Catholic Girlhood in 1957 bolstered this reputation.
This literary critic authored more than two dozen books, including the now-classic novel The Group , the New York Times bestseller in 1963.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_McC...
McCarthy studied at Vassar college in Poughkeepsie, New York and graduated in 1933. McCarthy moved to city of New York and incisively wrote as a known contributor to publications such as the Nation, the New Republic, and the New York Review of Books. Her debut novel, The Company She Keeps (1942), initiated her ascent to the most celebrated writers of her generation; the publication of her autobiography Memories of a Catholic Girlhood in 1957 bolstered this reputation.
This literary critic authored more than two dozen books, including the now-classic novel The Group , the New York Times bestseller in 1963.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_McC...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
July 14, 2010
'I envy you, writing about Venice,' says the newcomer. 'I pity you,' says the old hand. One thing is certain. Sophistication, that modern kind of sophistication that begs to differ, to be paradoxical, to invert, is not a possible attitude in Venice. In time, this becomes the beauty of the place. Once gives up the struggle and submits to a classic experience. Once accepts the fact that what one is about to feel or say has not only been said before by Goethe or Musset but is on the tip of the tongue of the tourist from Iowa who is alighting in the Piazzetta with his wife in her furpiece and jeweled pin. Those Others, the existential enemy, are here identical with oneself. After a time in Venice, one comes to look with pity on the efforts of the newcomer to disassociate himself from the crowd. He has found a 'little' church - has he? - quite off the beaten track, a real gem, with inlaid coloured marbles on a soft dove grey, like a jewel box. He means Santa Maria dei Miracoli. As you name it, his face falls. It is so well known, then? Or has he the notion of counting the lions that look down from the window ledges of the palazzi? They remind him of cats. Has anybody ever noticed how many cats there are in Venice or compared them to the lions? On my table two books lie open with chapters on the Cats of Venice. My face had fallen too when I came upon them in the house of an old bookseller, for I too had dared think that I had hold of an original perception.
-- Mary McCarthy, from "Venice Preserved" in Venice Observed
Despite the fact that her first chapter is an insistence that nothing original can be said of Venice anymore, I always find myself looking to Mary McCarthy's Venice Observed as one of the great volumes on Venice. It's a lovely dip into the history and atmosphere of the world's most fascinating city. I've read this before, so this time, everything had a familiar feel to it... perhaps like a lot of Venice (or any city) when you make a return trip... and since I'm planning to go back to Venice next month, it seemed like a good thing to re-read.
The book is divided into small, self-contained chapters that focus on different elements of Venice's history or the author's experience with the city, always focused on the city and the people within it. McCarthy has a lovely way of strolling through the lessons in an effortless fashion, a font of Venetian wisdom. Even if she might have some small criticisms, she is always aware of the magic of the city, the thing that enchants us all, even if it's just a construct for tourists. The city has been a touristic location for four hundred years, after all. Its very existence is improbable and yet it continues to delight, spinning a history of the fantastic and surprising. Many of her observations, indeed, took root in my mind and stick with me as I think of Venice. In particular, her descriptions of qualities that took root in Venetian character, such as the Venetian's inventive and clever nature (the result of a city "with nothing of its own," and so it had "to steal and improvise"), or their complicated relationship with Rome on a political and religious level ("The pope was in Rome, and God was in heaven, but they were in Venice."), and that Venetians focus on "applied reason" (there are no real Venetian writers or philosophers -- "Venetians printed books but seldom wrote them"). She discusses the fairy tale nature of the city (and how people tend to be surprised that Venetians were so money-oriented, but what are fairy tales except stories filled with treasure and gold?) and spends a great deal of time on the many people who have painted the city.
McCarthy's prose is beautiful and detailed. Despite its short length, this really isn't a book one can gobble down with speed -- or at least one should not. It should be savored and the reader should take time to think about each chapter, lest they blend together and the nuggets of illumination be forgotten. Ideally, one might be the perfect companion to a drink while sitting in a Venetian square... because when one looks up from this book, that is the only view one wishes to look upon. One yearns for Venice after reading this book, and while the longing for Venice might always accompany those who have visited that magnificent city, there's something rather painfully delicious about piquing that hunger with books like this that make the city come alive in one's mind.
-- Mary McCarthy, from "Venice Preserved" in Venice Observed
Despite the fact that her first chapter is an insistence that nothing original can be said of Venice anymore, I always find myself looking to Mary McCarthy's Venice Observed as one of the great volumes on Venice. It's a lovely dip into the history and atmosphere of the world's most fascinating city. I've read this before, so this time, everything had a familiar feel to it... perhaps like a lot of Venice (or any city) when you make a return trip... and since I'm planning to go back to Venice next month, it seemed like a good thing to re-read.
The book is divided into small, self-contained chapters that focus on different elements of Venice's history or the author's experience with the city, always focused on the city and the people within it. McCarthy has a lovely way of strolling through the lessons in an effortless fashion, a font of Venetian wisdom. Even if she might have some small criticisms, she is always aware of the magic of the city, the thing that enchants us all, even if it's just a construct for tourists. The city has been a touristic location for four hundred years, after all. Its very existence is improbable and yet it continues to delight, spinning a history of the fantastic and surprising. Many of her observations, indeed, took root in my mind and stick with me as I think of Venice. In particular, her descriptions of qualities that took root in Venetian character, such as the Venetian's inventive and clever nature (the result of a city "with nothing of its own," and so it had "to steal and improvise"), or their complicated relationship with Rome on a political and religious level ("The pope was in Rome, and God was in heaven, but they were in Venice."), and that Venetians focus on "applied reason" (there are no real Venetian writers or philosophers -- "Venetians printed books but seldom wrote them"). She discusses the fairy tale nature of the city (and how people tend to be surprised that Venetians were so money-oriented, but what are fairy tales except stories filled with treasure and gold?) and spends a great deal of time on the many people who have painted the city.
McCarthy's prose is beautiful and detailed. Despite its short length, this really isn't a book one can gobble down with speed -- or at least one should not. It should be savored and the reader should take time to think about each chapter, lest they blend together and the nuggets of illumination be forgotten. Ideally, one might be the perfect companion to a drink while sitting in a Venetian square... because when one looks up from this book, that is the only view one wishes to look upon. One yearns for Venice after reading this book, and while the longing for Venice might always accompany those who have visited that magnificent city, there's something rather painfully delicious about piquing that hunger with books like this that make the city come alive in one's mind.
October 15, 2007
Delightful "profile" of Venice, Venetian art, people, and places...McCarthy has no background in art history so I take some of what she says with a grain of salt, but it is a wonderful literary portrait of a city. Heavy on analogy and metaphor but strikingly well-researched and thorough; she draws some stunning connections and reveals some hilarious minutiae about Venetian character and history.
January 6, 2015
For the tourist who tires of hagiography at every turn and wonders tentatively if it's permissible not to like every painting in every church and gallery she enters. With clear-eyed wit, McCarthy examines a city whose entire identity and history is wrapped up in being observed, yet finds fresh facts and novel interpretations.
November 20, 2007
If you're looking for a utilitarian guide to Venice, look elsewhere or be disappointed and possibly frustrated. "Venice Observed" is, as its title suggests, a collection of the author's observations about the city and its history, visual art, sociology, and music, of course, but also about the scholarship and literature inspired by it. The aptness of this seemingly circuitous exercise (Why read McCarthy's observations of Ruskin's observations of Venice when you can just read Ruskin's "Stones of Venice"?) is illustrated by her recognition that everything that one could possibly feel or think about Venice has already been felt, thought, and moreover, written about Venice. Thus, McCarthy's musings not only offer a window into the experiences of Venice that came before hers but also implicate all experiences to follow. For unlike that other great European canal city, Amsterdam, which has also once seen better days as the center of a global commercial empire, Venice never adapted itself to the ever-changing demands of modernization that might have prepared it to participate in the convocation of contemporary metropolises
but rather Venice has long since succumbed to the tides of nostalgia and tourism, bearing it ceaselessly into the past.
but rather Venice has long since succumbed to the tides of nostalgia and tourism, bearing it ceaselessly into the past.
July 29, 2016
I picked this up today to read the first chapter to see what I thought of it. I didn't want to put it down and kept on reading until I finished it tonight. McCarthy's descriptive and intelligent writing completely immersed me in the unusual world of Venice.
Next time I read it I will probably watch a documentary on Venice first so I can see in my mind's eye all the architecture, art, and people she wrote about. I do recommend it, especially if you are interested in the art and history of Venice.
Next time I read it I will probably watch a documentary on Venice first so I can see in my mind's eye all the architecture, art, and people she wrote about. I do recommend it, especially if you are interested in the art and history of Venice.
October 6, 2014
Probably the best book about Venice I have ever read. McCarthy is an amazing observer and her writing takes my breath away.I have read its 158 short pages twice now, put in many markers, and want to read it again.
September 7, 2019
Read this in Venice. Quite dated now, and not as good as Stones of Florence, but McCarthy's writing is a great cross between journalistic, poetic and personal.
September 16, 2024
In some ways this was a difficult read for me. Not that it was arduous or confusing, but I felt out of my element. I realized how little I know about painting, the (Italian) Renaissance, travel writing. This is just another way of saying that it awakened my curiosity about all of these topics. And Mary McCarthy is, as always, an amiable and provocative guide. It was interesting for me to read this book after recently finishing The Writing on the Wall, her 1970 volume of literary critical essays. I am surprised checking the date on these two works that they were published a decade and a half apart, so consistent is the probing nature of McCarthy’s prose. Here she ‘rotates Venice in her mind’ much as she does Pale Fire or Madame Bovary there. She is a master of what my grad school advisor used to call “thick description,” she seems to be thrusting Venice toward you in an open hand like an objet d’art of a bit of interesting garbage, asking you to see what she sees in if.
April 17, 2014
Full to the gills with guidebook perusing in anticipation of a future trip to italy, I looked to find more literary fare in this book, which I did. A cleaver outpouring of personal anecdote, history, art criticism and imaginative musings, the author unfortunately is just as overwhelming, Best read in short bursts, and could have used photos of the people, places and artwork she voluminously mentions. Pictures would have made better sense out of her thousands of words about them. Won't deter me from reading her possible similar interior monologue about Florence though. She can write, and her intelligence takes you into places where guidebooks can only leave you at the door.
November 27, 2025
This and THE STONES OF FLORENCE.
July 29, 2011
I found Mary McCarthy in an essay anthology and bought this based on that. Not as good as her political writing and literary criticism, but a nice read.
March 25, 2012
Das Buch mißfällt mir vom ersten Satz an: "Der kühle Verstand hat hinsichtlich Venedigs stets seine Zweifel gehabt." (Ich ziere hier nach der deutschsprachigen Augabe "Venedig" von 1999, ISBN 978-3426271247, S. 7) Hat er das? Und was soll hier eigentlich gesagt werden? Was auch immer: Wer etwas gegen Verstand und Vernunft sagt, hat erst mal jegliche Sympathie verspielt. Sicher ist das ein Vorurteil, aber doch wohl ein versta(e)ndliches.
McCarthy gehörte zu jenen Glücklichen, die sich einen Wohnsitz in Venedig leisten können. Gottlob belästigt darauf nicht jeder Untalentierte - aber doch allzu viele - den Büchermarkt. Was soll man von jemanden halten, dem die bei der Anmietung einer Wohnung eingestanden wichtigste und dem Leser mitzuteilende Causa ist, "wie viele Personen die Wohnung im oberen Stock bewohnen würden" (S. 27), um dann gleich anschließend langweiligen Tratsch über seinen Vermieter auszubreiten (S. 28ff und passim)? Nur ihre vermutliche amerikanische Hinterwäldler-Prüderie bewahrt McCarthy offenbar vor der Auswalzung peinlicher Details.
Die Autorin reproduziert überwiegend Angelesenes. Dagegen ist an sich nichts zu sagen und da ja zu Venedig schon "alles gesagt" (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Tagebuch der Italienischen Reise) ist, ist dies auch irgendwie unvermeidlich. Wenn es doch aber wenigstens interessant erzählt wäre! Originelle Sentenzen zu Venedig entgleiten McCarthy selten und eher zufällig. Ich bin geneigt, die Verallgemeinerung, "man findet sich damit ab, daß, was man im Begriff ist zu sagen oder zu empfinden... jedem Touristen aus Iowa auf der Zunge liegt" (McCarthy S. 20), doch eher zurückzuweisen. McCarthys "man" ist auf jeden Fall zunächst sie selbst und "man" kann sie wohl durchaus mit jenem Iowaman gleichsetzen, der in den USA als sprichwörtlich einfältiger Hinterwäldler gilt, denn Seattle liegt nicht nur hinterm Walde, sondern auch noch hinter den Bergen. So ist wohl auch etwa der Plural S. 24 zu deuten: "Für uns ist die venezianische Geschichte ein Kuriosum..."
Um vielleicht noch Zweifelnde von meinem Negativurteil zu überzeugen, ein paar Blütenlesen halbgebildetem Unsinns: "Bronzepferde des Nero" (S. 10); "er (Napoléon) die Piazza S.Marco mit dem Bau der Fabbrica Nuova abschloß" (S. 11, 107) Den Fehler, die Ala Napoleonica mit den Rialtomarkthallen zu verwechseln, hat McCarthy wohl von William Dean Howells (Leben in Venedig. Deutsch v. Gertraud Michel hg. v. Wolfgang Barthel Berlin 1987, S. 40) abgeschrieben. Und der wiederum geht wahrscheinlich auf eine Verwechselung zurück: Die Gebäudeteile mit den Amtsräume im Dogenpalast wurden im Unterschied zum relativ kleinen Bereich der Dogenwohnung als fabrica bezeichnet. "Venedig ist eine Faltpostkarte seiner selbst" (S. 14); "hockt in den Stadtbibliotheken die... Gruppe von Nichtstuern" (S. 16); die Venezianer "haben (außer Höflichkeit) nichts anderes zu tun" (S. 17); "der heilige Hieronymus wird, dank seinem (die Übersetzerin hatte offenbar Schwierigkeiten mit der deutschen Grammatik) zahmen Löwen, zum Lieblingsheiligen Venedigs" (S. 22); die "'degenerierten' Venezianer der Renaissance... (verkauften) ihr Erstgeburtsrecht für ein architektonisches Linsengericht" (S. 34); Enrico Dandolo sei "gefügiges Werkzeug... aus Habsucht" für die Hohenstaufen gewesen (S. 37); "die unverbesserlichen Venezianer" (S. 39); der Doge Francesco Foscari sei "in kurzem Prozeß abgesetzt (worden), weil er die Partei seines Sohnes ergriff" (S. 50); der Bannerträger des Putschisten Baiamonte Tiepolo sei "von einem Ziegelstein (Vielleicht hat hier auch nur die Übersetzerin versagt.) erschlagen" worden (S. 54, 61); "Die Geschichte Venedigs... ist merkwürdig farblos2 (S. 55); der Sieg von Lepanto wurde von den Europäern "nie ausgewertet (sic!)..., weil Spanien der Anblick eines venezianischen Schiffes nicht gefiel" (S. 72); das Friaul sei "halb albanisch" (S. 83); "Harry's Bar in Torcello" (S. 95); das Eintreffen der Flotte Carlo Zenos während des Abwehrkampfes gegen die Genuesen im Chioggia-Krieg sei "der einzige heroische Augenblick in der Geschichte Venedigs" (S. 104); "die Vergangenheit hat hier in Chioggia einen üblen Geruch, wie stinkende Pisse2 (S. 105); "das sybaritische Venedig der Renaissance" (S. 114); "untergeordnete Rolle, die die Venezianer in allen Künsten, außer dem Mosaik, gespielt haben" (S. 119); "Venedig... brachte nur einen einzigen Architekten hervor - Palladio" (S. 120) - Padua und Vicenza haben sich zwar gestritten, "Palladio ist unser", Venedig aber hat niemals darauf Anspruch erhoben und er hat nie in Venedig gewohnt; "...wurde Giorgione in das Zeitalter des Amateurs hineingeboren2 (S. 138); "bedeutungslose Krone Zyperns" (S. 139); "Muße des Renaissanceadels - die einfach Massenarbeitslosigkeit war" (S. 140); "die Orgel wurde in Venedig entwickelt" (S. 162).
Und wozu soll eigentlich die Aufzählung, wie alt Maler in Venedig geworden sind (S. 22-23), gut sein (Die hat dann wohl James Morris (Dreimal Venedig. Aus dem Engl. v. Hermann Stiehl und Christian Röthlingshöfer. überarbeitete Auflage München 1983, S. 38) abgeschrieben (zuerst London 1960, 1963, spätere englische Ausgaben teilweise revidiert/erweitert 1974, 1983, 1993))? Oh Schreck - da fällt mir ein, daß ich in mein Venedig-Manuskript gerade eine Aufzählung der Turmzusammenbrüche eingefügt habe. Da werde ich mich also rechtfertigen müssen, was das soll!
Irgendwann hat die Autorin wohl gemerkt, daß sie nicht genug Stoff hat, um ein Venedig-Buch zu füllen. Und so hat sie den Text zunehmend mit unsystematischen Beschreibungen und teilweise fragwürdigen Interpretationen von Gemälden aufgefüllt (S. 70-71, 85-91, 93, 100-101, 109-112, 116-119, 122-133, 137-160, 166-168). Da kann ich dem Verlag, abgesehen vom Vorwurf, dieses Buch überhaupt gedruckt zu haben, die Frage nicht ersparen: Was soll der Leser mit Bildbeschreibungen/-interpretationen anfangen, ohne daß diese abgebildet sind? Warum hat sich McCarthy nicht an ihren Landsmann Howells (S. 143) gehalten: "Ich bin sicher, keiner, dem der Beruf des Künstlers fremd ist, war jemals in der Lage, sich irgendein Bild richtig vorzustellen, wenn er nur die Beschreibung gelesen hat, und sei sie noch so sorgfältig und genau."
Zu Bildinterpretationen sind Experten zu empfehlen, ich zähle hier nur die neuesten Bildbände auf (natürlich gab es auch schon genügend davon zu Zeiten von McCarthy): Oskar Bätschmann: Giovanni Bellini. Meister der venezianischen Malerei (München 2008); Gottfried Boehm, Alan Cong, Anne Distel, Dario Gamboni u.a.: Mythos Venedig. Von Canaletto und Turner bis Monet (2008); Matthias Bleyl: Deckenmalerei des 18. Jahrhunderts in Venedig: die hohe Kunst der Dekoration im Zeitalter Tiepolos (München 2005); Markus Ewel: Das Darstellungsproblem "Figur und Landschaft" in der venezianischen Malerei des 16. Jahrhunderts (Hildesheim/Zürich/New York 1993); Cornelia Friedrichs: Francesco Guardi - venezianische Feste und Zeremonien: die Inszenierung der Republik in Festen und Bildern (Berlin 2006); Andrea Gottdang: Venedigs antike Helden. Die Darstellung der antiken Geschichte in der venezianischen Malerei von 1680 - 1760 (Dissertation Kiel 1999, Wien/München 1999, 2002); Hans D. Huber: Paolo Veronese. Kunst als soziales System (2005); Gabriele Köster: Künstler und ihre Brüder. Maler, Bildhauer und Architekten in den venezianischen Scuole Grandi (Berlin 2008); Axel Limpert: Bildvergleiche von Ereignisdarstellungen in der Renaissance. Das letzte Abendmahl von Leonardo da Vinci, Jacopo Tintoretto und Tiziano Vecellio (Norderstedt 2007); Ruggero Rugolo: Venedig auf den Spuren von Bellini, Carpaccio, Tintoretto, Veronese (Florenz 2003); Norbert Schneider: Venezianische Malerei der Frührenaissance. Von Jacobello di Fiore bis Carpaccio (2002); Giovanna Scireì Nepi: Malerei in Venedig. Photographien v. Piero Codato und Massimo Venchierutti. Übersetzung aus dem Ital. v. Ulrike Bauer-Eberhardt und Barbara Geratz Matera (München 2003); Martin Seidel: Venezianische Malerei zur Zeit der Gegenreformation: kirchliche Programmschriften und künstlerische Bildkonzepte bei Tizian, Tintoretto, Veronese und Palma il Giovane (Münster 1996); Wolfgang Wolters: Der Bilderschmuck des Dogenpalastes. Untersuchungen zur Selbstdarstellung der Republik Venedig im 16.Jahrhundert (Wiesbaden 1983); Astrid Zenkert: Tintoretto in der Scuola die San Rocco: Ensemble und Wirkung (Tübingen/Berlin 2003).
Ob McCarthy mit ihrem Venedig-Buch eine Schaffenskrise übertünchen wollte, ist mir nicht bekannt, das schwache Ergebnis scheint aber darauf hinzudeuten. Damit wäre sie ja auch nicht die erste. Gegenüber ihrem - ebenfalls amerikanischen - Vorgänger, der selbst im Versagen noch ein kraftstrotzender Riese war, erscheint sie allerdings als mickeriger Zwerg. Ein ordentlicher Verlag hätte einem Autor das Manuskript um die Ohren gehauen. Mit einer Dame tut man natürlich so etwas nicht.
McCarthy gehörte zu jenen Glücklichen, die sich einen Wohnsitz in Venedig leisten können. Gottlob belästigt darauf nicht jeder Untalentierte - aber doch allzu viele - den Büchermarkt. Was soll man von jemanden halten, dem die bei der Anmietung einer Wohnung eingestanden wichtigste und dem Leser mitzuteilende Causa ist, "wie viele Personen die Wohnung im oberen Stock bewohnen würden" (S. 27), um dann gleich anschließend langweiligen Tratsch über seinen Vermieter auszubreiten (S. 28ff und passim)? Nur ihre vermutliche amerikanische Hinterwäldler-Prüderie bewahrt McCarthy offenbar vor der Auswalzung peinlicher Details.
Die Autorin reproduziert überwiegend Angelesenes. Dagegen ist an sich nichts zu sagen und da ja zu Venedig schon "alles gesagt" (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Tagebuch der Italienischen Reise) ist, ist dies auch irgendwie unvermeidlich. Wenn es doch aber wenigstens interessant erzählt wäre! Originelle Sentenzen zu Venedig entgleiten McCarthy selten und eher zufällig. Ich bin geneigt, die Verallgemeinerung, "man findet sich damit ab, daß, was man im Begriff ist zu sagen oder zu empfinden... jedem Touristen aus Iowa auf der Zunge liegt" (McCarthy S. 20), doch eher zurückzuweisen. McCarthys "man" ist auf jeden Fall zunächst sie selbst und "man" kann sie wohl durchaus mit jenem Iowaman gleichsetzen, der in den USA als sprichwörtlich einfältiger Hinterwäldler gilt, denn Seattle liegt nicht nur hinterm Walde, sondern auch noch hinter den Bergen. So ist wohl auch etwa der Plural S. 24 zu deuten: "Für uns ist die venezianische Geschichte ein Kuriosum..."
Um vielleicht noch Zweifelnde von meinem Negativurteil zu überzeugen, ein paar Blütenlesen halbgebildetem Unsinns: "Bronzepferde des Nero" (S. 10); "er (Napoléon) die Piazza S.Marco mit dem Bau der Fabbrica Nuova abschloß" (S. 11, 107) Den Fehler, die Ala Napoleonica mit den Rialtomarkthallen zu verwechseln, hat McCarthy wohl von William Dean Howells (Leben in Venedig. Deutsch v. Gertraud Michel hg. v. Wolfgang Barthel Berlin 1987, S. 40) abgeschrieben. Und der wiederum geht wahrscheinlich auf eine Verwechselung zurück: Die Gebäudeteile mit den Amtsräume im Dogenpalast wurden im Unterschied zum relativ kleinen Bereich der Dogenwohnung als fabrica bezeichnet. "Venedig ist eine Faltpostkarte seiner selbst" (S. 14); "hockt in den Stadtbibliotheken die... Gruppe von Nichtstuern" (S. 16); die Venezianer "haben (außer Höflichkeit) nichts anderes zu tun" (S. 17); "der heilige Hieronymus wird, dank seinem (die Übersetzerin hatte offenbar Schwierigkeiten mit der deutschen Grammatik) zahmen Löwen, zum Lieblingsheiligen Venedigs" (S. 22); die "'degenerierten' Venezianer der Renaissance... (verkauften) ihr Erstgeburtsrecht für ein architektonisches Linsengericht" (S. 34); Enrico Dandolo sei "gefügiges Werkzeug... aus Habsucht" für die Hohenstaufen gewesen (S. 37); "die unverbesserlichen Venezianer" (S. 39); der Doge Francesco Foscari sei "in kurzem Prozeß abgesetzt (worden), weil er die Partei seines Sohnes ergriff" (S. 50); der Bannerträger des Putschisten Baiamonte Tiepolo sei "von einem Ziegelstein (Vielleicht hat hier auch nur die Übersetzerin versagt.) erschlagen" worden (S. 54, 61); "Die Geschichte Venedigs... ist merkwürdig farblos2 (S. 55); der Sieg von Lepanto wurde von den Europäern "nie ausgewertet (sic!)..., weil Spanien der Anblick eines venezianischen Schiffes nicht gefiel" (S. 72); das Friaul sei "halb albanisch" (S. 83); "Harry's Bar in Torcello" (S. 95); das Eintreffen der Flotte Carlo Zenos während des Abwehrkampfes gegen die Genuesen im Chioggia-Krieg sei "der einzige heroische Augenblick in der Geschichte Venedigs" (S. 104); "die Vergangenheit hat hier in Chioggia einen üblen Geruch, wie stinkende Pisse2 (S. 105); "das sybaritische Venedig der Renaissance" (S. 114); "untergeordnete Rolle, die die Venezianer in allen Künsten, außer dem Mosaik, gespielt haben" (S. 119); "Venedig... brachte nur einen einzigen Architekten hervor - Palladio" (S. 120) - Padua und Vicenza haben sich zwar gestritten, "Palladio ist unser", Venedig aber hat niemals darauf Anspruch erhoben und er hat nie in Venedig gewohnt; "...wurde Giorgione in das Zeitalter des Amateurs hineingeboren2 (S. 138); "bedeutungslose Krone Zyperns" (S. 139); "Muße des Renaissanceadels - die einfach Massenarbeitslosigkeit war" (S. 140); "die Orgel wurde in Venedig entwickelt" (S. 162).
Und wozu soll eigentlich die Aufzählung, wie alt Maler in Venedig geworden sind (S. 22-23), gut sein (Die hat dann wohl James Morris (Dreimal Venedig. Aus dem Engl. v. Hermann Stiehl und Christian Röthlingshöfer. überarbeitete Auflage München 1983, S. 38) abgeschrieben (zuerst London 1960, 1963, spätere englische Ausgaben teilweise revidiert/erweitert 1974, 1983, 1993))? Oh Schreck - da fällt mir ein, daß ich in mein Venedig-Manuskript gerade eine Aufzählung der Turmzusammenbrüche eingefügt habe. Da werde ich mich also rechtfertigen müssen, was das soll!
Irgendwann hat die Autorin wohl gemerkt, daß sie nicht genug Stoff hat, um ein Venedig-Buch zu füllen. Und so hat sie den Text zunehmend mit unsystematischen Beschreibungen und teilweise fragwürdigen Interpretationen von Gemälden aufgefüllt (S. 70-71, 85-91, 93, 100-101, 109-112, 116-119, 122-133, 137-160, 166-168). Da kann ich dem Verlag, abgesehen vom Vorwurf, dieses Buch überhaupt gedruckt zu haben, die Frage nicht ersparen: Was soll der Leser mit Bildbeschreibungen/-interpretationen anfangen, ohne daß diese abgebildet sind? Warum hat sich McCarthy nicht an ihren Landsmann Howells (S. 143) gehalten: "Ich bin sicher, keiner, dem der Beruf des Künstlers fremd ist, war jemals in der Lage, sich irgendein Bild richtig vorzustellen, wenn er nur die Beschreibung gelesen hat, und sei sie noch so sorgfältig und genau."
Zu Bildinterpretationen sind Experten zu empfehlen, ich zähle hier nur die neuesten Bildbände auf (natürlich gab es auch schon genügend davon zu Zeiten von McCarthy): Oskar Bätschmann: Giovanni Bellini. Meister der venezianischen Malerei (München 2008); Gottfried Boehm, Alan Cong, Anne Distel, Dario Gamboni u.a.: Mythos Venedig. Von Canaletto und Turner bis Monet (2008); Matthias Bleyl: Deckenmalerei des 18. Jahrhunderts in Venedig: die hohe Kunst der Dekoration im Zeitalter Tiepolos (München 2005); Markus Ewel: Das Darstellungsproblem "Figur und Landschaft" in der venezianischen Malerei des 16. Jahrhunderts (Hildesheim/Zürich/New York 1993); Cornelia Friedrichs: Francesco Guardi - venezianische Feste und Zeremonien: die Inszenierung der Republik in Festen und Bildern (Berlin 2006); Andrea Gottdang: Venedigs antike Helden. Die Darstellung der antiken Geschichte in der venezianischen Malerei von 1680 - 1760 (Dissertation Kiel 1999, Wien/München 1999, 2002); Hans D. Huber: Paolo Veronese. Kunst als soziales System (2005); Gabriele Köster: Künstler und ihre Brüder. Maler, Bildhauer und Architekten in den venezianischen Scuole Grandi (Berlin 2008); Axel Limpert: Bildvergleiche von Ereignisdarstellungen in der Renaissance. Das letzte Abendmahl von Leonardo da Vinci, Jacopo Tintoretto und Tiziano Vecellio (Norderstedt 2007); Ruggero Rugolo: Venedig auf den Spuren von Bellini, Carpaccio, Tintoretto, Veronese (Florenz 2003); Norbert Schneider: Venezianische Malerei der Frührenaissance. Von Jacobello di Fiore bis Carpaccio (2002); Giovanna Scireì Nepi: Malerei in Venedig. Photographien v. Piero Codato und Massimo Venchierutti. Übersetzung aus dem Ital. v. Ulrike Bauer-Eberhardt und Barbara Geratz Matera (München 2003); Martin Seidel: Venezianische Malerei zur Zeit der Gegenreformation: kirchliche Programmschriften und künstlerische Bildkonzepte bei Tizian, Tintoretto, Veronese und Palma il Giovane (Münster 1996); Wolfgang Wolters: Der Bilderschmuck des Dogenpalastes. Untersuchungen zur Selbstdarstellung der Republik Venedig im 16.Jahrhundert (Wiesbaden 1983); Astrid Zenkert: Tintoretto in der Scuola die San Rocco: Ensemble und Wirkung (Tübingen/Berlin 2003).
Ob McCarthy mit ihrem Venedig-Buch eine Schaffenskrise übertünchen wollte, ist mir nicht bekannt, das schwache Ergebnis scheint aber darauf hinzudeuten. Damit wäre sie ja auch nicht die erste. Gegenüber ihrem - ebenfalls amerikanischen - Vorgänger, der selbst im Versagen noch ein kraftstrotzender Riese war, erscheint sie allerdings als mickeriger Zwerg. Ein ordentlicher Verlag hätte einem Autor das Manuskript um die Ohren gehauen. Mit einer Dame tut man natürlich so etwas nicht.
June 28, 2022
A few years ago as I was planning my first trip to Venice, I looked for books to read to learn more about the city. I was already familiar with many literary references to the city, particularly Thomas Mann's "Death In Venice" and more than one appearance of the city in the works of Henry James, but I was looking for a high brow history and travel guide. I circled around Ruskin, but "The Stones of Venice" was too daunting so I settled on Peter Ackryod's "Venice: Pure City". I learned a lot from that book that helped my appreciation of the place when I got there, but it was long and dry and left me wanting something better, something more. It's a damned shame that it took me until now to discover Mary McCarthy's gem, which would have given me all that I wanted. It's smart and concise. It covers all of the basics of Venice history, geography, and art with the charming perspective of an American visitor who knows the city for the sham adult theme park that it has become in the years since the republic ended with Napoleon's conquest, but who loves the city and appreciates the quirky culture that she sees as evolving out of a mentality that put commerce before all else. Ms. McCarthy gives us all of the basics - St. Marks, the Doge's Palace, the architecture of Palladio, the art of Titian and Tintoretto, but she also guides us to places around the edges - the Ghetto, Burano (where they make lace, not Murano the tourist place where they make glass), and Torcello, and when it comes to art, she spends more time on Giorgione and Veronese than Titian. Her tastes are not obscure, but are just eclectic enough to lead you down paths less traveled, though she is also careful to note that one of the traits of Venice is that you can never discover anything truly new that others have not found before you.
December 21, 2023
I think it's high time that I go back to observe it some more ❤️
Poetic, very intelectual, meandering almost stream-of-consciousness love letter to Venice.
Not quite my cup of tea, tbh, but still nice to get transported back to one of my favourite places for a bit.
2.5 really at most for me.
Poetic, very intelectual, meandering almost stream-of-consciousness love letter to Venice.
Not quite my cup of tea, tbh, but still nice to get transported back to one of my favourite places for a bit.
2.5 really at most for me.
December 25, 2018
I was preparing for my third trip to Venice and picked up this book published in 1956 to get a different perspective on this magnificent city. Alas, I was not able to read the book until my return from Europe, but lived through the street flooding in Venice which was a quite different experience. Following my short stay in Venice I decided to read this book to get a feel for this City from the view of an established writer & artist. Although the book is short it is not an easy read & certainly not your typical tourist review. It covers 8 separate analyses of the people, their history, art, music, politics & architecture. My problem is that the tone of this book was really pedantic and at times boring. I thought it would have helped when discussing the art & architecture that it would be easier to understand her review if there had been photos or paintings included in the critiques. It was hard to visualize what McCarthy was talking about. One thing I did like was the discussion about cats & lions and the various doges but nothing about Marco Polo. McCarthy does clearly point out that this town had to survive by ingenuity and isolation developed as a successful merchant city with a fully developed republic and that set it apart from all the other European cities. Pragmatism overcame religion & racism. However their essences & soul became something unique not depending on what others thought. To me Venice reminds me a lot of New Orleans which also never adapted to modernization or big business preferring to continue to living to the beat of their own drum still relying on the past, preserving their history & relying on tourism. Like New Orleans Venice suffers yearly from flooding & while New Orleans is the City that Care forgot Venice is the Queen of the Adriatic. Magical & mysterious.
May 9, 2025
If you have enjoyed a stay in Venice, then you might like reading Mary McCarthy's book, Venice Observed. One of her better points is that there is nothing new to discover in Venice, if you do your research then you'll see how much has already been written about Venice. Your personal experience can be wonderful, enjoy.
March 11, 2014
an intelligent commentary on various aspects of Venice -- its art, its artists, its (lack of) architecture, its (lack of) great thinkers. An original interpretation, short and thought-provoking.
June 22, 2016
Well-written, thoughtful observations on the social, political, religious, and artistic (architecture, painting, and music) history of Venice from a mid-20thc perspective.
September 12, 2021
The history of Venice completely out of the general context. I had the impression to read only subjective interpretations based on the author's preferences and preconceptions rather than on documented facts: a history of Venice according to Mary McCarthy. The author remains an external observer, a stranger more than a foreigner, despite living in Venice and breathing the city. She tries to describe Venice by making comparisons to other cities, buildings, monuments and, therefore, she thoroughly misses its essence. Many details are inexact, as one easily realises by looking up photos on the internet. The high-relief that she describes, near Piazza S. Marco, of a Venetian woman throwing a brick to the revolutionaries is actually a woman with a mortar, and the legend is slightly different from what she tells. Did she really see the sculpture? This is a meaningless detail, which, however, makes me wonder about how inaccurate her descriptions of historical events are. I also found her descriptions of Giorgione's paintings hilarious, but these, of course, can be subjective. I appreciated some mentioning of monuments and artistic works I was unaware of: they really exist and I'm curious to discover them.
December 15, 2019
As other reviewers have noted, this is not a practical guidebook, or really a guidebook at all. What it is is a rather idiosyncratic but learned set of personal reflections upon and reactions to the phenomenon of Venice by an idiosyncratic and learned writer. What one learns is that Venice is essentially sui generis, a fact it knows about itself and about which it is justly proud. It is a city that probably shouldn't exist but does, that should not enjoy the level of historical prominence it once did but nevertheless enjoyed, that knows itself and its priceless contents to be doomed by time and tide (and now by global climate flux), that insists all the same on being itself and still opens itself to the visitors that are both a source of amusement and its lifeblood. Venice is a city of secrets still, McCarthy intimates, a city that cannot be known from above or afar, but must be entered by boat and by foot and experienced slowly and intimately, a city proud of its mercantile past but also worthy of mention alongside big sisters Florence and Rome for its humanistic riches in art and architecture.
April 15, 2022
She really did her homework, and plenty of comparative art history, architecture critiques, and detailed, granular first hand observation from mid 20th Century. She explains how Venice went from fishing villages on the fens to inaccessible refugee hideout, to world naval and commerce power, to crossroads of rival religions and political maneuvers, to art, and finally a theme park.
Quote:
"Traffic lights are not funny, but it is funny to have one in Venice over a canal-intersection. . . in the unreal realm of the canals, as in a Swiftian Lilliput, the real world, with its contrivances, appears as a vast folly."
~ Mary McCarthy in VENICE OBSERVED (1956).
Quote:
"Traffic lights are not funny, but it is funny to have one in Venice over a canal-intersection. . . in the unreal realm of the canals, as in a Swiftian Lilliput, the real world, with its contrivances, appears as a vast folly."
~ Mary McCarthy in VENICE OBSERVED (1956).
October 26, 2019
A superb little book in which the author shares in lucid prose her knowledge and understanding of Venice, past and (her) present. She knew about as much as was available to know at the time, and all of it is fascinating. I read it after visiting Venice, and I wish I'd read it prior. But I think I would then want to read it again after returning home. (p.s. This book seemed less packed with information than her book on Florence ("The Stones of Florence"). In that book, the info comes at you fast and hard, somewhat like an avalanche. But both books are terrific.
March 21, 2022
It takes a lot for me to dislike a book about Venice. Not sure why the author stayed there, as everything in Venice was described as either sad, dead, ugly, talentless, fake or turned to dust. (I think this series of essays was actually commissioned by the New Yorker.) Venice certainly isn't the same glorious Republic it was 200 years ago, but there only seemed to be a handful of good words about Venice or Venetians across the entire book. One of the most lopsided books about Venice I've ever read.
April 30, 2023
Pros: Some really good early history of Venice. Big pages of pictures and portraits. Due to when it was written, there was an amusing simile about buying something way back when would have been like buying something behind the Iron Curtain.
Cons: Overwrought midcentury syntax. Pictures and portraits didn't match up with the descriptions of art. Too much discussion of art.
Would I recommend this for someone going to Venice? Maybe. Don't make yourself read all of it if sections don't apply to your interests.
Cons: Overwrought midcentury syntax. Pictures and portraits didn't match up with the descriptions of art. Too much discussion of art.
Would I recommend this for someone going to Venice? Maybe. Don't make yourself read all of it if sections don't apply to your interests.
May 27, 2022
a great tour of Venice
A great tour of Venice by a knowledgeable dragoman. Too bad the kindle version doesn’t have maps and pictures to accompany the text. Not sure if the original publication did, but I volunteer to go to Venice to get some materials. For only travel expenses of course. I do wish she had forsaken the “negresses and blackamoors”, which were tasteless and out of fashion even when she wrote.
A great tour of Venice by a knowledgeable dragoman. Too bad the kindle version doesn’t have maps and pictures to accompany the text. Not sure if the original publication did, but I volunteer to go to Venice to get some materials. For only travel expenses of course. I do wish she had forsaken the “negresses and blackamoors”, which were tasteless and out of fashion even when she wrote.
April 10, 2025
Highly recommend reading this with a browser window open to look up locations and pictures of the art and architecture described. A classic that deserves its reputation. My favorite section was her description of Paolo Sarpi fighting a war of letters against the papal curia, defending Venice against interdict and eventually winning a victory so complete that interdict was never used again (Henry VIII and others having already mostly broken its power).
October 4, 2022
Erudite but engagingly conversational, this classic work displays this one-of-a-kind city in all its splendor, with all its quixotic characteristics, all its contradictions. The commercial mindset of the inventive and adaptable Venetians through the centuries has shaped their politics, art and architecture, social structure, and views on power, religion, and morals.
April 10, 2022
Interesting book and learning experience.
July 3, 2022
An interesting book on Venice. Chronicles Venice’s history, art while providing some places to visit. The first edition was written in the 1950s so expect some differences from contemporary Venice.
March 31, 2023
An engaging read. Even though it was written in the 1950s I can recognise the Venice she 'observes'! (Much better than the more famous Jan Morris).
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