#123 Titian's Venus of Urbino: A Conversation with Rosella Mamoli Zorzi

Saturday, April 25th Live on Zoom

10am Los Angeles / 1pm New York / 6pm London / 7pm Florence

A very specila session of the Spring Season of Paola’s Studiolo will be dedicated to Titian’s 1535 masterpiece, the Venus of Urbino, a painting whose spell still holds firm in the present day. My guest will be professor Rosella Mamoli Zorzi, who will investigate the myths and stories surrounding this timeless painting, from the time of its creation to the later critiques by such writers as Mark Twain and Henry James.

ROSELLA MAMOLI ZORZI an emeritus professor of Anglo-American studies at the University of Venice, Ca’ Foscari, has been for the past ten years interested in the relationship between Anglo-American writers and Venetian painters. She directed the Ph.D. course on literary translation (from English to Italian) and was until 2022 the President of the Venice Committee of the Società Dante Alighieri. She has published widely on 19th and 20th century British and American novelists and poets. She has worked on the relationships between Venetian painters and Anglo-American writers.

Her recent publications are:

-Wonder and Irony, with Henry James and Mark Twain in the Venice Ducal Palace, Venice, Supernova, 2018.

-“Almost a Prophet”, Henry James on Tintoretto, Venice, Supernova, 2018.

-“John Ruskin and Henry James in the Enchanting Darkness of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco”, in From Darkness to Light. Writers in Museums 1798-1898, ed. by Rosella Mamoli Zorzi and Katherine Manthorne, Cambridge, OpenBook Publishers, 2019.

- Carpachter or Carpaccio? Carpaccio and 19th Century Anglo-American Writers in Venice, Venice, Supernova, 2023.

- The Aspern Papers and Other Tales, ed. by R.M.Z. and Simone Francescato, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2022.

– An American Painter in Venice. Ralph W. Curtis and the Palazzo Barbaro, with an essay by Elisabetta Barisoni, Leiden, Brill, 2024 (A revised and enlarged edition of the 2019 Italian book)

Contemporary artist Vittoria Colonna will read a part of Zorzi’s newest book, inspired by the “Venere svelata” (“Venus unveiled”) exhibition curated in 2003 by Umberto Eco at the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels.

To RSVP: Paola50122@gmail.com

Minimum suggested donation: $28

This talk is free for Friends of Paola's Studiolo!

Look forward to seeing you on Zoom!