Venetian art that inspired me:
Vittore Carpaccio, St. George and the Dragon, Benedictine monastery on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice (another version is in the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Venice), 1516
“Over the altar at the head of the room, lit by a few candles, was a painting of a knight charging a winged dragon. Clad in shining armor and sitting astride a galloping horse, he pierced the dragon with a long lance to its throat. Blood poured from its mouth and down its haunches. Leda gave a little gasp, immediately recognizing triumphant Saint George …” (Chapter 19)
Giovanni Bellini, Saints Christopher, Jerome, and Louis of Toulouse, Church of San Giovanni Crisostomo, Venice, 1513
“Caterina looked up. Directly in front of her, she noticed a large painting of St. Jerome on a rock in the wilderness. The dark gray stone columns of the actual church had been painted into the picture, so it looked like the church wall itself suddenly broke open to the outside air. She imagined herself climbing the rock and running into the distant mountains of the painting, under the dome of blue sky with its pink and gray clouds and soft, clear light.” (Chapter 35)
Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of a Boy, Gallerie degli Accademia, ca. 1725
“Leda continued working on the portrait of Giovanni for several hours. He came and went from the chair, returning whenever she needed to see his eyes, his chin better. Caterina watched the picture take form: Giovanni turned three-quarters, his gray-green eyes alive with a miraculous spot of white showing light in his pupils.” (Chapter 44)
Giorgione, The Tempest, Gallerie degli Accademia, ca. 1507
“Caterina pointed out a small fresco of the Virgin, set inside a rectangular stone frame. Flowers and messages had been left on the shelf below the faded picture. There was nothing like it anywhere in the city. Christ’s mother was painted almost naked, except for a simple cloth over her shoulders. She sat directly on an uneven bank by a brook. Trees and shrubs behind her looked windblown, as if a storm was coming. In the midst of this scene, she nursed her baby. Most strangely, she looked directly at her viewers, as if interrupted.” (Chapter 62)