Venetian Masters at the Accademia Galleries: Light, Colour, and Legacy

The Accademia Gallery houses the world’s most important collection of Venetian painting, spanning from the late Middle Ages to the 18th century.

Here, we trace the evolution of Venetian art, beginning with the gold-ground panels of Paolo Veneziano, where echoes of the Byzantine world still linger. We move on to the vivid storytelling of Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio, whose works offer detailed glimpses into daily life in 15th- and 16th-century Venice.

Then come the masterpieces of the Venetian Renaissance — luminous, bold, and visionary — with masterpieces by Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Lotto, Veronese, and Tintoretto. Some are intimate and meditative, others monumental in scale and theatrical in ambition.

The 17th century marked a quieter phase for Venetian painting. But in the 18th century, a new energy emerged: light, colour and atmosphere returned with Giambattista Tiepolo’s soaring frescoes, and the poetic vedute of Canaletto and Guardi — visions of Venice that still shape the way the world imagines the city today.

My approach to art is always rooted in historical context — in what the painting meant at the time it was created — but I also invite visitors to reflect on what these images might still say to us today. Art is never silent: it carries questions, beauty, contradictions, and echoes that can still resonate, centuries later.