Review: Venice from the Water: Architecture and Myth in an Early Modern City, by Daniel Savoy

Abstract

Daniel Savoy Venice from the Water: Architecture and Myth in an Early Modern City New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2012, 143 pp., 50 color and 140 b/w illus. $65.00, ISBN 9780300167979 The city of Venice is defined by a tenuous pact with the sea. Nature and architecture coexist in a balance unprecedented in urban history. No political, cultural, ecological, or architectural examination of Venice can approach the topic without some consideration of the city’s maritime setting. In recent publications, scholars have explored the rich architectural heritage of Venice through a variety of critical stances, yet none has analyzed the urban morphology and aesthetics of this miraculous “floating” city from the perspective of the aquatic milieu as the physical and metaphorical generator of architectural form. In Venice from the Water: Architecture and Myth in an Early Modern City , Daniel Savoy combines scrupulous archival research with extensive voyages through the waterways of Venice to formulate a theory based on a calculated process of water-oriented Venetian urbanism during the medieval and early modern periods. Despite reference to early modernity in the book’s title, Savoy’s investigation starts in the early thirteenth century, at which time, he proposes, “the Venetians shrewdly recognized potential in their aqueous site for spectacular architectural exhibitionism and then realized that prospect through inventive urban design” (111). He argues that architects and patrons throughout the period under examination sought to perpetuate the “myth of Venice” as a divinely established civic entity through dreamlike architectonic compositions for the express purpose of enchanting and astounding visitors to the island city. Savoy further contends that the Venetian waterways were “integral components of a unified land and aquatic-based spatial network” (4), as important to Venetian civic life as land-based streets and squares. Building on Elisabeth Crouzet-Pavan’s history of the concerted efforts of the Venetians to shape a landmass out of their watery surroundings, Savoy proposes a parallel collaboration among architects, planners, and patrons in developing a water-inspired architectural aesthetic.1 Citing Dominion of the Eye …