Venice Day 2-January 9th

Isabella Barwick-Day 2, January 9th: 

This morning we left our loggings at 8:30 and walked through the slowly waking streets of Veinice taking in the morning sights. We then took the water taxi across the channel and visited the Arsenal of Venice on Castello. This arsenal, the heart of the naval industry in Venice, is a complex of former shipyards and armories clustered together. We spend several hours learning about the history of this base and exploring its grounds. 

In the afternoon when we were all given the chance to explore the city independently I went to to Musei Correr, Venice’s Museum of Artifacts. This sprawling building located in St. Marks Square once was the Venetian home of the king of Italy. Now it houses art and history from before the common era to the mid-18th century. A marvel of architecture and artifacts this museum is a stunning marvel of Venetian culture. 

I found many art pieces of women particularly striking, especially when considering our reading for today and how women have been viewed and oppressed for hundreds of years. Our reading discussed the impacts of gender and sex on Venice spanning from the Roman Empire to the 16th century. Each of these four readings discussed different issues related to these topics, from the ways sexual penetration and social status were used to prove masculinity, to how women were viewed as property and extensions of their family's honor and wealth, to the way that prostitution upheld the Vincentian economy.

As I explored the museum and contemplated these issues I noticed that while nude bodies of both men and women were on display, in the form of statues and paintings, the art of women frequently sexualized them or shown without their heads, leaving them nothing but bodies to be desired, revilied, or pitied. As a city whose economy was once based upon slave trade and prostitution, I can't help but wonder how these values affect the ways that bodies, especially those of women, are depicted and persevered.