The Brenta Riviera in Arts

Over the course of the centuries numerous artists have drawn inspiration from Riviera del Brenta.
In 1667, Giovanni Sagredo, St. Mark’s prosecutor and ambassador of the Venetian Republic, published ‘L’Arcadia in Brenta’, which tells the story of a group of Venetian nobles that hopped on the ‘burchiello’ to spend a week among magnificent properties, gardens and all the exquisite places of the golden arcadia that is Riviera del Brenta.
Riviera del Brenta is “one of Italy’s most beautiful holiday resorts”, claimed Carlo Goldoni in 1749, who therein set his “Arcadia in Brenta”, a comic opera with music composed by Baldassarre Galuppi. The opera narrates the story of Venetian aristocrats and wealthy middle class men and their obsession with holidaying on the
Venetian mainland. Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650-1718) must also
be remembered. He was a famous engraver, encyclopedist and cartographist who published in 1709 his book “La Brenta, quasi borgo della città di Venezia, luogo di delizie de’ veneti patrizi, delineata e descritta.”

Johann Christoph Volkamer (1644-1720), a resourceful merchant and a botanic from Norimberga who specialised in citrus trees, in 1714
published the book “Continuation der Nürbergischen Hesperidum”, which introduces the reader to landscapes and villas of North Eastern Italy, among which can be found Riviera del Brenta.
Giovanni Francesco Costa (1711-1772), a popular Venetian architect, stage sets painter and engraver, in 1750 published a collection of engravings of landscapes and villas of Riviera del Brenta which he named “Delle delicie del fiume Brenta espresse ne palazzi e casini situati sopra le sue sponde dalla sboccatura nella laguna di Venezia fino alla città di Padova”.

We must also remember great Venetian landscapist artists of the 18th century such as Canaletto, Guardi and Cimaroli, not to mention brilliant painters such as Giambattista and Giandomenico Tiepolo, or Arcadian landscapists like Giuseppe Zais. It is impossible not to be
charmed and taken aback by the breathtaking views and quaint sights of Riviera del Brenta or by its elegant nature and complex architecture each one of its villas is different from the others and has its own, one of a kind beauty that matches its equally impressive surroundings.
And it comes natural to drift away from the here and the now and dream about a far-away past and its traditions: this is yet another dimension of the evocative villas and their art.