Lisa Hilton

The splendour and squalor of Venice

In his celebration of Venetian art, Martin Gayford is keenly alert to the city’s spectacular contradictions

Whistler’s haunting ‘Giudecca’, 1879-80 [Bridgeman Images] 
issue 09 December 2023

Hard by the Rialto, in a densely packed and depressingly tacky quarter of Venice, the church of San Giovanni Cristosomo houses one of Giovanni Bellini’s most luminous and exquisite paintings. ‘I Santi Cristoforo, Girolamo e Ludovico di Tolosa’ is known to locals as ‘the Burger King Bellini’, after the fast food outlet opposite the church door.

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