Passing through the central portal of the Library, you can now take the rich double staircase. It is a jewel of the architecture and decoration of the late Venetian Renaissance. When you reach the landing, look up to see a small and charming dome lined with precious white and gold stuccoes alternating with Classical frescoes.
When you reach the top, you're now in the atrium. The octagon at the center of the ceiling has another Titian masterpiece: the image of Wisdom flying over the clouds. This luminous image represents a moment of serenity in the great master's work, who was now on the threshold of seventy.
In the splendid main hall, don't miss the wonderful ceiling that was made thanks to the collaboration of seven painters. It's like looking at a kind of collective exhibition of young Venetian talent shortly after the mid-sixteenth century. Each artist was entrusted with three "tondi", or circular paintings, with a strictly equal number for each. Titian, who was called on as a judge, decided to reward Paolo Veronese with a gold necklace, who hadn't even turned thirty yet.
To find Paolo Veronese's three canvases, you have to look for the sixth and second-to-last row of round paintings. The artist was still at the beginning of his Venetian career, and this victory marked its decisive turning point. The painter is appreciated for his vibrant colors, but also and above all for his ability to master the perspective of figures to be seen from the bottom up, with your nose up, as you are doing right now!
FUN FACT: to give you an idea of how acute the cultural policy of the Republic of Venice was, you should know that in the beginning of the sixteenth century a law came into force that obliged every Venetian printer to deposit a copy of each book that came out of its print shop here. This is how the Marciana Library became the institutional library of the Republic of Venice.
