Piazza San Marco and the Architecture of Romance in Summertime Essay

The urban center of Venice and its monuments function, on the surface, as the under(a)framework and backcloth for the storyline in David Leans 1955 film, Summertime. The action itself advances as a video travelogue, immediately impressing us with the fundamental role the sea plays for this body of water community when the bus turns out to be a water taxi and a fire engine a boat.The camera brings us along the Grand Canal, direful us with celluloid paintings of such magnificent examples of lofty Venetian design and decoration as Longhenas 17th- nose candy Church of Santa Maria della Salute, P completelyadios 16th-century Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, and Antonio da Pontes late 16th-century Rialto Bridge in quick succession. Abruptly, we ar returned to the realities of ordinary Venetian life.Passing on foot d accept centuries-old streets to yet another waterway, we hear a Venetian tossing her household garbage unceremoniously into the canal to be carried away by the tides th at perpetu exclusivelyy cleanse the city, underscoring again the watery foundation that sustains life in Venice. Yet, Venice is more than a simple frame from which the storyline of the film is hung. Venice defines this screw story, enabling the protagonists to escape the constraints of their disparate worlds to a magic place imbued with all the mystery and accost of her eclectic past.Venice is the sum total of ideas and design acquired from its primitive beginnings, through its period under snarled rule, its lucrative mercantile contact with the West and East, and its proximity to Rome, as evidenced in the many monumental churches, statues, columns, scuole, libraries, and palaces that were created by the most prominent architects and artists of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. As Spiro Kostof says in The City Shaped (1999), The city is the ultimate memorial of our struggles and glories it is where the pride of the past is set on display. In the film, as in Venice itself, post S an Marco figures prominently. Often, the Piazza is more than a mere backdrop, at times it seems to become a character of its own right. One of the most prominent structures of the Piazza is the Campanile. Originally constructed in the 10th century, the tall brick Campanile with its tan pyramidal spire seen in the Summertime is actually a 1912 reconstruction of the original as it looking ated when it collapsed in the early part of the 20th century (Kostof, 1995).Early on, as Jane wonders what she will do alone in Venice, the bells of the Campanile ring out, seeming to call to her, beckoning her to Piazza San Marco and her fateful encounter with Renato. In their last meeting, just as Jane utters the sentence I dont want to forgeta single molybdenum the Campanile begins to chime once more. Summertime is rattling much about the meeting of two very different cultures, and this opus is reflected in much of the architecture featured in the film.The most famous of all Piazza structure s, St. Marks basilica is an outstand example the marriage between the Oriental or Byzantine and Gothic twist styles. The elaborate mosaics highlighted in the still travelogue shots, the basilica plan, and the five domes that crown the basilica are clear manifestations of the Byzantine. The arches of the facade, rounded on the underside with pointed rooflines are an excellent example of the interweaving of the Byzantine love for domes and the pointed Gothic arch.Whereas the sculptural detail, rose windows, and trefoil arches present in the Basilica are part of the buildings Gothic heritage. Such Gothic elements also figure prominently in Doges Palace and the Sansovino Library. Finally, St. mark Basilica, Doges Palace and the Sansovino Library all give nods to the classical orders in terms or proportions, but whereas the Basilica boasts obviously Byzantine capitals, Doges are a more convex Byzantine Corinthian hybrid, and the Library capitals are Ionic and Corinthian.The beautiful c oexistence of two different traditions so expertly managed in Piazza San Marco allows for the viewer and the lovers themselves to imagine, at to the lowest degree momentarily, that despite the obvious problems (she being only a tourist and he being married), a fairytale-like union might be possible for them as well. Venice has been referred to by contemporaries as a theme park on water. In the film Summertime, the integration of the characteristics derived from Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles combine to produce a whimsical wonder domain within which fantasies can be lived.To highlight this, the camera returns repeatedly to Mauro Coduccis 15th century clock tower in Piazza San Marco focusing on its playful mechanical Moor figures, dazzling blue and gold of the Lion of St. Mark to add a truly whimsical and theme-park-like air to the Piazza. This good sense of fun and freedom further adds to the romance of the couples time together by establishing it as a associa te and safe play space, setting it apart from Janes Ohio reality.Both spatially and chronologically, Piazza San Marcos literally frames the romance between Jane (Katharine Hepburn) and Renato (Rossano Brazzi) as they meet in the Piazza and ultimately their last encounter begins there. Significantly, Jane makes Renato take her away(p) the Piazza to tell him she is leaving. The film goes to great lengths to establish Venice as a fairytale setting, and when Jane explains her reasons for departing so curtly they echo this notion. Jane says she fears staying to long and ruining the perfect memory they have created.Essentially, though her fear is of the dream fade into reality. Thus, it is understandable that Renato begs her to stayfor him there is no difference because Venice is his reality. And having exited Piazza San Marcos for the final time, the spell is broken, at least enough that, like Wendy, she leaves her Peter Pan in his permanent dream and decides to depart the fairytale l and and return to reality, maintaining Venice as a flawless Neverland that lives in her memory.However, unlike Wendy, she had a camera and can look back at her film of the buildings and remember her brief stint in the fairytale land of coexistence.ReferencesKostof, S. (1995). A History of Architecture Settings and Rituals. New York Oxford. Kostof, S. (1995). The City Shaped. London Thames & Hudson. Lopert, I. (Producer), & Lane, D. (Director). (1955). Summertime Motion picture. USA Lopert Films.