During the 14th and 15th centuries Venice was one of
the main political, mercantile, and maritime powers of Eu-
rope. It ruled over an eastern Mediterranean empire and
obtained great wealth from its trade with the Levant,
Mediterranean countries, and northern Europe, while
through its Egyptian depots it monopolized the import of
spices from the Far East. Its dependence upon the sea for
its power and wealth was symbolized in the annual cere-
mony of the spozalizio del mar (see BUCINTORO). Venetian
shipbuilding was based on the Arsenale, which employed
up to 16,000 workers and at one stage produced a galley
every day for 100 days for the war against the Turks. Al-
though great patrician merchant families dominated
Venice, its constitution was regarded as a model of coop-
eration between the monarchical, oligarchic, and democ-
ratic elements of society. Greek refugees in the late 15th
century made Venice a magnet for European scholars;
their activities focused on the NEAKADEMIAof Aldus MANU-
TIUS, whose ALDINE PRESSplaced the city in the forefront of
PRINTINGin Europe. Equally significant, at the very begin-
ning of the 16th century, Ottaviano PETRUCCI’s laborious
process for printing polyphony—and the simplified tech-
nique evolved by his successor Antonio Gardano—meant
that Venice led the rest of Europe in the printing and dis-
semination of music (see MUSIC PRINTING AND PUBLISHING).
Venice’s great power and wealth led it into conflict
both with its Italian neighbors and with major European
powers. Maritime rivalry resulted in war with Genoa in
the 14th century, and Venetian territorial expansion led to
war with Milan in the 15th. Venice was so greatly feared
that its Italian neighbors, the papacy, Aragon, and France
combined against it in the League of CAMBRAI(1508).
From the second half of the 15th century Venice also
spent many years in wars against the Turks and suffered a
number of setbacks. By the 16th century numerous wars,
the Portuguese discovery of an alternative route to the rich
spice trade of the Far East, and Venice’s inability to com-
pete effectively with the new nation states of western Eu-
rope led to the beginning of Venice’s centuries-long decline.
During the period of the Renaissance Venice was
renowned for its banks in the Rialto, the site of Europe’s
first bank in the 12th century. The wealth of Venice sup-
ported the work of the numerous artists of the VENETIAN
SCHOOLand the construction of many great palaces and
churches. Notable Renaissance constructions include the
doge’s palace (14th century), the Arsenale (founded in the
12th century), the Rialto bridge (c. 1590), and the Bridge
of Sighs (1600).
The Piazza di San Marco, onto which fronts the great
medieval basilica of San Marco, is still the heart of the city;
it is surrounded by handsome Renaissance buildings with,
in the northern corner, Mauro CODUSSI’s Torre dell’ Oro-
logico (clock-tower) with two bronze figures (the
“Mori”), dating from 1497, to strike the hours. Adjacent
to the Piazza di San Marco is the Piazzetta with the Libre-
ria Sansoviniana housing the Bibliotheca MARCIANA. In the
Renaissance period the basilica of San Marco, along with
some others of the Venetian churches, was the heart of a
thriving musical culture, with musicians of the caliber of
Andrea and Giovanni GABRIELIperforming and composing
music to be performed there.
Further reading: William J. Bouwsma, Venice and the
Defense of Republican Liberty: Renaissance Values in the Age
of Counter Reformation (Berkeley, Calif.: University of Cal-
ifornia Press, 1968); David Chambers, The Imperial Age of
Venice, 1380–1580 (London: Thames & Hudson, 1970);
Patricia Fortini Brown, Art and Life in Renaissance Venice
(Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1997); Paul Hills,
Venetian Color: Marble, Mosaic, Painting and Glass
1250–1550 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press,
1999); Deborah Howard, Venice and the East: The Impact of
the Islamic World on Venetian Architecture 1100–1500 (New
Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000); Norbert Huse
and Wolfgang Wolters, The Art of Renaissance Venice: Ar-
chitecture, Sculpture and Painting 1460–1590 (Chicago, Ill.:
University of Chicago Press, 1990); John McAndrew,
Venetian Architecture of the Early Renaissance (Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT Press, 1980); Brian Pullan, Rich and Poor in Re-
naissance Venice: The Social Institutions of a Catholic State,
to 1620 (Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell, 1971); David Rosand,
Myths of Venice: The Figuration of a State (Chapel Hill,
N.C.: University of North Carolina, 2001).Venus The Roman goddess of love, beauty, and fertility,
frequently identified in classical antiquity, and later, with
the Greek goddess Aphrodite. One of the earliest Renais-
sance paintings to celebrate a pagan subject was BOTTI-
CELLI’s The Birth of Venus, which recreates the Greek myth
telling of Aphrodite’s birth from the foam of the sea. The
choice of subject was intended to recall one of the most fa-
mous works of art of antiquity—Apelles’ lost painting
known as Aphrodite Anadyomene (or Aphrodite rising from
the Sea).
In the Greek pantheon Aphrodite was married to the
lame smith god Hephaestos (Roman Vulcan), but was un-
faithful to him and became the mistress of the god of war,
Ares (Roman Mars). Depictions of the lovers were a fa-
vorite theme in Renaissance art, often presented as an al-
legory of War subdued and disarmed by Love, but also as
erotic art for its own sake; Botticelli, PIERO DI COSIMO, and
VERONESEin their different renderings of the subject show
little Cupids carrying off and playing with Mars’s warlike
accouterments (see also CUPID). Another scene that ap-
pealed to painters as offering the scope for depicting fe-
male nudes in a pastoral landscape was the judgment of
Paris, who, according to the story, was appointed as ar-
biter by the goddesses Aphrodite, Hera, and Athene in
their contest to decide which of them was the most beau-
tiful. Besides Cupid or Cupids, Venus is often depicted
with roses and myrtles, the plants traditionally associatedVVeennuuss 4 48877