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Lead book review

The splendour and squalor of Venice

In his celebration of Venetian art, Martin Gayford is keenly alert to the city’s spectacular contradictions

9 December 2023

9:00 AM

9 December 2023

9:00 AM

Venice: City in Pictures Martin Gayford

Thames & Hudson, pp.464, 30

Hard by the Rialto, in a densely packed and depressingly tacky quarter of Venice, the church of San Giovanni Cristosomo houses one of Giovanni Bellini’s most luminous and exquisite paintings. ‘I Santi Cristoforo, Girolamo e Ludovico di Tolosa’ is known to locals as ‘the Burger King Bellini’, after the fast food outlet opposite the church door.

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