Verona Rinascimentale

We meet our guide to Renaissance Verona, Giacomo Maffei, at the Basilica of San Zeno. Giacomo is a member of a commercial family of Verona and one of the most important wool-workers of his time; he is just back from one of the recurrent trade shows in Bolzano where he succeeded to export to the German markets the cloths that Verona is reputed for.

Since the early 1400s the town had been in the orbit of Venice for about 400 years: thus Verona could count on a relative political stability and also on a certain economic welfare thanks to its local products.

In the artistic field the Gothic style gave way to the Renaissance and, right in the Basilica of San Zeno, Giacomo shows us the awesome altarpiece by Andrea Mantegna dating to the mid-15th century and commissioned by Gregorio Correr, an abbot of Venetian origin; this masterpiece is distinquished as the first altarpiece of Northern Italy that was totally depicted in Renaissance style. We remain fascinated with the spacial perspective effects achieved in the altarpiece, and it almost looks like we could even take part in the conversation of the saints.

The masterpiece by the Paduan painter was an essential starting point for Veronese artists of that time, and in order to confirm this our guide brings us to the nearby Church of San Bernardino, where a rich collection of masterpieces by various old masters are treasured, and to the library, where extraordinary frescoes by Domenico Morone and his son Francesco can be admired.

A visit to the near Castelvecchio Museum is not to be missed if we want to thoroughly follow the evolution of the Renaissance painting in Verona which pays homage to Mantegna but which also developed its own personal and fascinating identity.

Our "woolworker" hastens to bring us to the aristocratic Corso Cavour and to proudly show us two buildings of the 16th century: Palazzo Canossa (on the left hand) and Palazzo Bevilacqua (a little further on, on the opposite side), two valuable examples of Renaissance architecture by the Veronese Michele Sanmicheli. The architect owes his enduring fame not only to civil architecture but also, and mostly, to military architecture such as Porta Nuova, Porta San Zeno and Porta Palio, all location that our guide invites us to see at the end of our walk.

Walking through Porta Borsari, we continue on the Corso as far as Piazza delle Erbe (Herbs’ square) where Giacomo suggests that we look upward to admire the extraordinary frescoes on the Case Mazzanti depicting mythological and allegorical scenes. So vivid are the colours and so many were the town buildings embellished with frescoed façades that it is easy for us to understand why Verona was called Urbs picta, the painted city.

Just a few more meters and we find ourselves in Piazza dei Signori (Lords’ square) where the Loggia del Consiglio (Council Loggia) stands - also called Loggia di Fra’ Giocondo, after a famous Veronese friar and architect to whom the masterpiece was later erroneously ascribed. Our guide greets his most illustrious fellow citizens who are leaving one of the town Council meetings that, at his time, used to take place right in this building.

Giacomo, then, decides to surprise us with a visit to the Duomo where, in the left aisle, next to the Cappella Cartolari-Nichesola (Cartolari-Nichesola Chapel), we come face to face with Tiziano’s Assumption of the Virgin.

We leave the Duomo and head for the Adige river where we try to imagine the busy city life of that time when the river was the undisputed life blood of the town, when rafts loaded with all sort of goods sailed on it, and water mills animated its river banks.

Thanks to these communications as well as to an intense mercantile activity, of which Giacomo was a proud exponent, the local production reached many distant markets.

From the Ponte Pietra the river bend captures us with a scenographic view of Verona: in the background stands the Church of San Giorgio in Braida with its majestic dome that Giorgio Vasari attributed to Michele Sanmicheli. The Church enshrines many masterpieces, among which is Paolo Veronese’s Martyrdom of St. George which alone is worth the walk.

Keeping the river on our right hand side, we retrace our steps to the Church of Santa Maria in Organo; the façade is one of the numerous works of the architect Sanmicheli, but it is its interior that hides a surprise that leaves us speechless: Fra’ Giovanni da Verona’s wood inlays of the choir and sacristy that Vasari defined as "the most beautiful sacristy in Italy". 

Giacomo Maffei takes his leave of us after suggesting that we  relax in the nearby Giardino Giusti (Giusti’s Garden). While he goes back to his cloth business we enjoy the solitude of the park after our long walk.