Over the centuries, numerous artistic testimonies have celebrated the Riviera del Brenta.
It was in 1667 that Giovanni Sagredo, procurator of St. Mark’s and ambassador of the Venetian Republic, published “L’Arcadia in Brenta”, telling of a cheerful group of Venetian nobles who boarded a burchiello to spend a week among villas, gardens, fishponds and pleasant places of that golden arcadia – the Riviera del Brenta.
The Riviera del Brenta, wrote Carlo Goldoni in 1749 is “one of the most beautiful destinations for villeggiatura in Italy”. It is here that he set his “Arcadia in Brenta”, an opera buffa, with music by Baldassarre Galuppi, which tells of the Venetian nobility and rich bourgeoisie and their eager longing for a holiday on the mainland. Let us remember the great engravers such as Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650-1718), a cartographer and encyclopaedist, famous throughout Europe, who in 1709 published “La Brenta, quasi borgo della città di Venezia, luogo di delizie de” veneti patrizi, delineata e descritta.”
Johann Christoph Volkamer (1644-1720), an enterprising merchant and botanist from Nuremberg with a special interest in the world of citrus fruits, published the ‘Continuation der Nürbergischen Hesperidum’ in 1714. The work features landscapes and villas of north-eastern Italy, including those along the Riviera del Brenta.
Giovanni Francesco Costa (1711-1772), a famous Venetian architect, set painter and engraver, published in 1750 a collection of engravings depicting the landscapes and villas of the Riviera del Brenta, entitled ‘Delle delicie del fiume Brenta espresse ne palazzi e casini situati sopra le sue sponde dalla sboccatura nella laguna di Venezia fino alla città di Padova’.
How can one fail to recall the great Venetian vedutisti – view painters – of the 18th century such as Canaletto, Guardi, and Cimaroli, as well as excellent painters such as Giambattista and Giandomenico Tiepolo or artists of the Arcadian school such as Giuseppe Zais? The views and picturesque landscapes of the Riviera del Brenta, its lush nature and complex and varied architecture cannot fail to impress and fascinate artists. Eeach villa, different from the others, steals one’s gaze and frees the mind. It is only natural to daydream about bygone times, customs and habits, another dimension that still speaks to us through the evocative works of art that have survived to this day.
