Friday 4 October 2019

Venice trip/ Real life stuff

The week after commanding a Venitian army ,off I went to Venice for a long weekend to celebrate our 20th  wedding anniversary, while there I took a few photos that I thought might be of interest .


Description

Bartolomeo Colleoni equestrian sculpture of the Condittore, I've wanted to see this ever since finding a book on the Condittore in my college library in Nottingham ( when I should have been researching something else to be honest!) that he was on the cover of,it's a really big plinth he's sitting on!
One of the highlights for me was the St Ursula cycle in the Academy ,painted between 1490 and 1495 by 
Vittore Carpaccio beautifully observed and superb draftsmanship and painting. The views of a late 15th century Italian urban landscape are really interesting for me in my current terrain push.


Also in the cycle is a visit to Cologne, the painter has used the Venetian Arsenal as his model of Cologne.




The "Huns" are contemporary troops possibly from Dalmatia,I like that the figures in the second image could be war of the roses Men at arms with Swiss heads! The depiction of Castle Saint Angelo on a flat plain is explained by the artist copying it from a woodprint, I do like all the flags though! In the naval museum there were a lot of really nice models and further down the canal there was an old Arsenal shed with lots of boats in it I've included a couple of pictures of a launch next to a gondala.









I really liked the old school museum, but I enjoyed the shed even more, I'd certainly recommend it if you are in Venice and your other half is willing to bear it!


This is the entrance to the Arsenal, the inside of which is still restricted,an elegant military industrial complex. Speaking of the Arsenal, the day before our trip to Venice was my elder brother's funeral,we carried him into the chapel in his coffin wearing his Arsenal kit. So apologies for being a bit tardy commenting and had I not had a tournament to go to there wouldn't have been too much to post recently. It does concentrate the mind and I have finally cleared out a load of gaming stuff I will never use again! Once you've buried your parents I guess it's inevitable that you will bury your older siblings in the natural order of things but it's still something of a shock, I hope the Venetian pictures were of interest and I hope to have some Italian wars terrain up soon.
All the best Iain

42 comments:

  1. Excellent photos of Venice, Iain! We visited twice. On the most recent visit in 2016, the Naval Museum was closed but the "shed" was still open. The Arsenal Gates are so beautiful. Bartolomeo's statue was very near to the BnB in which we stayed so I passed it daily.
    Venice is terrific place to wonder around without having the fear of permanently becoming lost. I have been bewildered often but never truly lost! Your photos make me wish for a return visit.

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    1. Glad you liked the reminder of your trip! It's a lovely place to visit, I've been there a couple of times before, once for work and once with my nephew's in a culmination of a roadtrip/rally, but it was nice this time to just wander!
      Best Iain

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  2. Iain, my condolences on the loss of your brother.

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  3. Iain, Condolences for your sad loss. It is true that these things sort of things with friends and loved ones do concentrate the mind. Glad you still managed to get away for your important celebration. I Enjoyed your pictures, looks like you got the good weather.

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    1. Thanks Norm, glad you liked the pictures, mixture of weather but all good.
      Best Iain

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  4. Hi Iain, condolences for the loss of your brother, and also congratulations for your wedding anniversary. Wonderful pictures of Venice. Must have been a great trip and lots of interest stuff.

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    1. Thanks! There is a lot of interesting places to visit and all the period architecture is great.
      Best Iain

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  5. Sad tidings about your brother: condolences. I hope the trip provided some needed consolation in the wake of that: thanks for sharing. The scenes in the St Ursula cycle are fascinating!

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    1. Thanks Ed. The St Ursula cycle is really something and has only recently been restored.
      Best Iain

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  6. Some really cool photos. I'd love to visit Venice myself one day.
    My condolences on the loss of your brother.

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    1. Thanks Ray. You should definitely try and go, it's only a short distance!
      Best Iain

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  7. Sorry to hear of your brother’s passing Iain.
    Lovely pictures and very jealous of your anniversary trip. Last weekend was our 30th. A talked about trip to Italy was postponed til some other year due to offspring funding, and our weekend in Banff got delayed a couple weeks by a big effing early snow storm.
    I do love that I’m not the only one who looks at Italian Renaissance art and tries to figure which Perry figures to use!
    Cheers and happy anniversary
    Peter

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    1. Thanks Peter. Offspring funding sounds familiar! It is funny looking at major works of world art and trying to work out what combination of plastic box sets you would need to replicate them!
      Best Iain

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  8. Condolences on the passing of your brother Iain!

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  9. Sorry to hear, Iain. It's never easy.
    Congrats on the anniversary; beautiful pics, I'm in love with every bit.
    All the best

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    1. Your right Suber,I'm glad you like the pictures!
      Best Iain

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  10. condolences for your loss Lain. you did well to go to Venice, it is always one of the most suggestive and beautiful places in Italy.

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    1. Thank you Ronin, it's a very atmospheric city
      Best Iain

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  11. Beautiful! Thanks a lot for a photos!

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  12. Condolences on your brother’s passing Iain. I hope the trip to Venice eased things a little. Great pictures and some lovely exhibits I wish I’d seen.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence.Venice is definitely worth a visit.
      Best Iain

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  13. Oooh, I'm envious - so much gorgeousness to look at!

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  14. I do love seeing Italian architecture and you have some great pics there. Museums can be overlooked far too easily as having somehting of interest for everyone !
    Condolences on your loss, but as you say "it's the corder of things in life".

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  15. Sorry to hear of your brother's passing, Iain. A Wonderful trip and great to see the amazing artwork surviving to our day.

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    1. Thanks Dean, some really nice work there.
      Best Iain

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  16. I am sorry to hear about your brother Iain. Superb photos, your ones of the arsenal have made me more confident about how I painted my Italian walls and towers! Really envious of your trip it looked great.

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    1. Thanks Oli. I was looking at the walls and thinking of you!
      Best Iain

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  17. Great pics and happy wishes for your 20th. What an awesome trip. I’ll have to not tell my wife as I wouldn’t want her to get any ideas of our 20th in 10 years. 😀
    My condolences for your older brother. It’s probably true what you say about parents and then older siblings.
    Which is depressing to me since my parents are buried and I’m the oldest.
    Please take care of yourself. 😀

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    1. Thanks Stew,it's a great place to visit, so now there are some benefits to being the youngest after all!
      Best Iain

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  18. Nice pics and account. Been a long time since I went to Venice!

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  19. Oh, I envy you that, Iain :)
    I visited Venice for a short time in 2013. It was great.

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    1. It was very nice! Well worth another visit!
      Best Iain

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  20. Very jealous Iain. Venice is one of my favorite places. I have been lucky enough to have been there three times and I spent seven superb days there in 2015. The Naval museum was one of the great finds of that visit and largely away from the tourist masses. We are planning on returning next year...maybe. Condolences for your loss.

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  21. Thanks Mark,my third trip, although the other two times was for work and the end of a rally from Calais to Venice in a low cost car with my nephew's and we only really had time to sleep and eat so good to get some time to see the sights this time!
    Best Iain

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  22. Am sorry to get to this post so late in the day Iain. Much love from over the pond regarding your brother.

    Your trip looked lovely. One day I hope to go and see all this myself. If I win the lottery. LOL

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    1. Thanks Dai, definitely worth a trip if you win the lottery!
      Best Iain

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