Layers of Venice
Architecture, Arts and Antiquities at Rialto
abstract
The book offers a greater understanding of the multiple layers of meaning that have been superimposed in the course of the Medieval and Modern Ages in the Rialto area. The authors follow the Leitmotiv of the memorial component that each operation of architectural reuse has carried in the history of the church of San Giacomo di Rialto, a building which stands, emblematically, as a sort of architectural relic. Adopting this principle, the book offers an in-depth analysis of the spatial model, the reuse of individual architectural and decorative elements but also, on a larger scale, the different configurations of the urban context (the Rialto market) through the centuries, after repeated destruction, reconstruction and transformation. By adopting this multi-scale approach, the book reveals the key role played by the church in the narrative strategy adopted to perpetually renew the myth of Venice, taking on a conceptual and polysemantic dimension where each component (object, context, meaning, function, image) constitutes an element cultural memory, with each leaving a tangible trace of its own.
Basilica • Byzantine • Reused materials • Acqua alta • Early Byzantine Capitals • Giustizia • Bridge of Rialto • Banks • High Middle Ages • Medieval architecture • Lieu de mémoire • Spolia • Urban History • History of Architecture • Venice • Medieval • Trading places • Romanesque • Concieri • Stones • Alessandro Vittoria • Rialto • Marbles • Restoration • San Giacomo di Rialto • Venetian Architecture • Venetian Trade Guilds • Greek cruciform • Medieval town • Ancient Roman Capitals • Venetian Republic • Andrea dall’Aquila • Early modern trade • Venetian Renaissance Sculpture • Early modern commercial institutions • Venetian early modern architecture • Church of San Giacomo at Rialto • Vigilio Rubini • History of Venice • Reuse of building materials