Myths of Venice

Over the course of several centuries, Venice fashioned and refined a portrait of itself that responded to and exploited historical circumstance. Never conquered and taking its enduring independence as a sign of divine favor, free of civil strife and proud of its internal stability, Venice broadcast the image of itself as the Most Serene Republic, an ideal state whose ruling patriciate were selflessly devoted to the commonweal. All this has come to be known as the myth of Venice.

Exploring the imagery developed in Venice to represent the legends of its origins and legitimacy, David Rosand reveals how artists such as Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, Carpaccio, Titian, Jacopo Sansovino, Tintoretto, and Veronese gave enduring visual form to the myths of Venice. He argues that Venice, more than any other political entity of the early modern period, shaped the visual imagination of political thought. This visualization of political ideals, and its reciprocal effect on the civic imagination, is the larger theme of the book.


Never conquered and taking its enduring independence as a sign of divine favor, Venice broadcast an image of itself over the course of several centuries as the Most Serene Republic, an ideal state whose ruling patriciate were selflessly devoted to the commonweal. Exploring the imagery developed in Venice to represent the legends of its origins and legitimacy, David Rosand reveals how artists such as Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, Carpaccio, Titian, Jacopo Sansovino, Tintoretto, and Veronese gave enduring visual form to the myths of Venice. He argues that Venice, more than any other political entity of the early modern period, shaped the visual imagination of western political thought.

Myths of Venice: The Figuration of a State
David Rosand, Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History at Columbia University, is well known for his studies of Venetian art. His books in that field include Titian; Painting in Sixteenth-Century Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto; and The Meaning of the Mark: Leonardo and Titian.
"[This book] helps us better understand just why this beguiling city has, for so many centuries, fascinated the world. ("Washington Post Book World")"
"Rosand's "Myths of Venice" provide[s] expert guidance through the intricacies of this more private Venetian artistic symbolism, revealing its underlying sense much as a good map will reveal the basic rationality behind the city's complex web of islands, paths, and waterways. ("New York Review of Books")"
"ÝThis book¨ helps us better understand just why this beguiling city has, for so many centuries, fascinated the world. ("Washington Post Book World")"
"Rosand's "Myths of Venice" provideÝs¨ expert guidance through the intricacies of this more private Venetian artistic symbolism, revealing its underlying sense much as a good map will reveal the basic rationality behind the city's complex web of islands, paths, and waterways. ("New York Review of Books")"
"The scholarship in back of this deceptively straightforward presentation is what we have come to expect of Rosand as one of the leading scholars of Venetian Renaissance art. (Patricia Fortini Brown, Professor of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University)
Highly recommended for public and academic libraries. ("Library Journal")