After spectacles were first invented in Venice, how did shape, wearing and colour change over the centuries? How did knowledge about glasses develop, when did they stop being linked to scholars, becoming pretty Rococo objects worn by high-society people?
Where were glasses invented? Who produced them originally? Where did production begin? Venice played a leading role in the matter, as can be found out below.
Do you like music? Do you like to see how it is miraculously produced? The Museum of Musical Instruments of the Venice Conservatory displays a number of musical instruments, nice to look at yet more or less mysterious to the non-expert eye. Observing them, though, might open a glimmer of light and, maybe… pierce through darkness…
Music almost dates back to the time men and women first appeared on Earth, but it is only in Medieval times that paintings started suggesting Heaven was even more beautiful with angel musicians playing music. At the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, we can see how ancient instruments (for which paintings often provide rare testimonies) were originally only played by angels, followed by brothers during processions and religious festivities and later also by poets or simple musicians.
Mariano Fortuny was a multifaceted versatile talented person and had a vast eclectic culture. He was a fashion and costume designer, an inventor, a photographer with a skilled eye and created many lamps, fabrics and garments. He spent many decades of his life in Venice, in Palazzo Pesaro degli Orfei, and purchased a former convent area with garden on the Giudecca island for his factory bringing it back to life
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