A true story of vendetta and intrigue, triumph and tragedy, exile and repatriation, this book recounts the interwoven microhistories of Count Girolamo Della Torre, a feudal lord with a castle and other properties in the Friuli, and Giulia Bembo, grand-niece of Cardinal Pietro Bembo and daughter of Gian Matteo Bembo, a powerful Venetian senator…

During the late 15th and early 16th centuries, Venetians lined their government council chambers and religious fraternities with narrative paintings of pageantry, diplomacy, and pious legend. These works—which include Carpaccio's pictorial stories about St. Ursula, St. George, and St. Jerome, as well as Bellini's panoramic recordings of the…

Venice was unique among major Italian cities in having no classical past of its own. As such, it experienced the Renaissance in a manner quite different from that of Florence or Rome. In this pathbreaking book, Patricia Fortini Brown focuses on Venice’s Golden Age—from the 13th to the 16th century—and shows how it was influenced by antiquity,…