Francesco Tollot

Thesis: Boundless Colours – luminosity, coloured reflections, iridescence and mist in the Venetian landscape practice

My project addresses the perceptual difference between surface colour (the colour of matt surfaces) and film colour (the colour of boundless visual phenomena such as the sky, fog, or reflections on the water’s surface) in the context of the Venetian landscape painting. In Venice, film colour manifests itself in particularly iconic–i.e. visually salient and significant– ways, thanks largely to the reflectiveness of the city’s canals and its humid and enveloping atmosphere, which scatters and diffuses light.

Historically, a number of painters devised different technical strategies in order to replicate on canvas the aesthetic peculiarity of the city’s landscape. My dissertation focuses on four of them, showcasing several different ways in which film colour appears in the city. These include: Giovanni Bellini and the jewel-like luminosity of his backgrounds and textiles, Claude Monet and the iridescence of his enveloping Venetian atmospheres, Davide Battistin and his coloured reflections on the surface of the lagoon and Martin Weinstein and the depth of colour in his Venetian landscapes.

Awarded Arts Scholars Award (2024) by The Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars

Background:

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