Customer Reviews

Palaces of Venice

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book some months ago in anticipation of a trip to Venice - which I have just returned from . I only glanced at the pictures before I left , with a view to savouring them and reading the text when I returned home.

When I actually started to read the text I discovered that the English translation is like something out of "Monty Python" ... the sketch with the obscene English/Hungarian phrase book . The line "my hovercraft is full of eels" would not be out of place in this book. It is a bizarre, pseudo architectural, English - Italian mangle of words, tenses, concepts & jargon. The dust jacket blurb even manages to insult the photographer (referring to his other works -"... among these volumes , some are worthy of value").

Some phrases ..."prevelaently ligneous", "architectonical experimentation", "autarchic economy" etc etc - and that's just the introduction !

Almost none of the complete sentences in the book make any sense whatsoever.

The photos are nice though - hence the 2 stars.

It'll look good on your coffee table, as long as you don't attempt to read it !

This book is an excellent value for the money. The photography is outstanding. It is printed in Italy - so the quality is very high. One of the reviewers complained about the writing. It's translated from Italian! If you aren't an art professor, you probably won't even notice! Also, this book is probably the best book on the subject, at a very fair price. So, unless you are able to pay $200 for Rizzoli's out of print, "Venetian Palaces" - get this book! It's far cheaper than a trip to Italy!

Yea, the text certainly has its awkward moments.

Nonetheless, this is an important and satisfying piece of work -- focused tour of over 60 Venetian palaces -- their history, the families, and the architects. Attention is paid to interiors as well as facades, including, of course, the decorative work by important Venetian painters. This is significant since, I imagine, getting inside of many of these privately-owned buildings is near impossible.

A quality piece of work with much subtlety of texture and color captured in the photography. Many of these buildings appear to be in pristine condition while others, more interestingly, show signs of wear and possibly neglect. Cloth over boards, 197 pp, color illustrations throughout, bibliography, map.