St. Marks Square in Venice. 1887 Valentin Serov (1865-1911)
Valentin Serov – St. Marks Square in Venice. 1887
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Painter: Valentin Serov
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At the age of 22, Valentin Serov became seriously ill. After receiving money for another painting, he and his friends decided to go to Italy. The warm climate of Italy had a good effect on the health of the great Russian artist. There he wrote one of his works - "St. Mark’s Square in Venice. Venice is a stunning city that for centuries has attracted artists and poets. St. Mark’s Square is the main place of the city.
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Description of Valentin Serov’s painting "St. Mark’s Square in Venice".
At the age of 22, Valentin Serov became seriously ill. After receiving money for another painting, he and his friends decided to go to Italy. The warm climate of Italy had a good effect on the health of the great Russian artist. There he wrote one of his works - "St. Mark’s Square in Venice.
Venice is a stunning city that for centuries has attracted artists and poets. St. Mark’s Square is the main place of the city. This is where the most important events take place: meetings, gatherings, couples fall in love and break up. The beauty of the local architecture impressed the artist.
In the center of the work is the Cathedral of St. Mark. Valentin Serov uses oil paints when working on the picture. He does not sketch all the details, but makes only hints, outlines. The color scheme of the work is muted. The artist abandoned the realistic portrayal of color. Choosing pastel shades, the master conveys the relief of Italian architecture. But due to the lack of color, the artist misses and does not show us all the beauty of the cathedral. He made it almost faceless, uninteresting. There is no tracing of the ancient mosaics, and the drawings that adorn the facade of the cathedral. We do not see the stunning marble facing of the building, the columns.
Perhaps this work is just a sketch. Probably the artist painted in the open air. He went out to St. Mark’s Square just for a couple of hours and made a sketch to work out the fine details later.
Despite the apparent incompleteness and opacity of the work, some of the individual moments in the picture are still drawn. For example, the artist depicted the location of people walking around the cathedral. These are the citizens or visiting tourists, who also, like Serov, were captivated by the beauty of local architecture. The square itself is almost empty: only in some places pigeons sit on the ancient sidewalk.
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The artist employed a muted palette, primarily consisting of ochres, browns, and grays, creating an atmosphere of subdued light and hazy distance. Brushstrokes are loose and visible, contributing to a sense of immediacy and capturing the ephemeral quality of Venetian weather. The application of paint is not concerned with precise detail; instead, it prioritizes conveying the overall impression of space and light.
The square itself appears sparsely populated. A few indistinct figures can be discerned in the foreground and along the edges of the composition, suggesting a quietness or emptiness that contrasts with the grandeur of the buildings. The ground is rendered as a flat expanse, further emphasizing the scale of the architecture above.
Subtly, theres an impression of transience. The indistinct forms and hazy atmosphere evoke a sense of memory or recollection rather than a direct observation. This might suggest a meditation on time’s passage and the enduring nature of these iconic structures against the backdrop of shifting atmospheric conditions. The lack of vibrant color and detailed figures contributes to a feeling of melancholy, hinting at a deeper emotional resonance beyond a simple depiction of a public space. It is not merely a representation of a place but an exploration of its mood and atmosphere.