'To Venice: Some Unsolicited Advice'
It is not so much sacrilege that James Gardner achieves in his "unsolicited advice" for the energizing of Piazza San Marco, but something more akin to an American-style tin ear when facing great urban environments [Arts & Letters, "To Venice: Some Unsolicited Advice," August 28, 2008].
When I look upon the piazza, I see something complete and elegant in its sweep and flatness — a kind of spatial silence, unaffected by local concerns. This gift from the past is not in need of alteration. Mr. Gardner feels otherwise: the piazza, he posits, is afflicted at its center, with a "distinct spatial flaccidity."
His remedy is to remove the impressive equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni from its existing site at the Ospedale and to insert it flat into the center of the piazza, ostensibly, as he puts it, to give the piazza "scale and focus."
Neither location will benefit from the move. This architectural conceit, reminiscent of numerous architectural student projects, is misapplied to the piazza. It effectively diminishes the broad majesty of this grand space.
Wisely, that other structure in the piazza, the Campanile — itself no chopped liver — was not centered, like a vase on some gigantic coffee table, but flanks the piazza at one end, its commanding height complementing the open expanse of the piazza itself.
Of all the many squares in this city, only the square at San Marco was deemed grand enough by the fathers of Venice to be designated "piazza." The rest, many with centered statuary, carry the name of "campo."
I can see no advantage to this so-called improvement, other than that which pigeons will take and make use of so well. This is surely not the first example of American immodesty, and not the first to strain Italian forbearance.
ALFONSO VINCENTS
