Dance in Venetian art
Dance in Venetian paintings is not a common subject, but once you start noticing, you will find out it’s been treated in a great variety. Sometimes sensuality or even a light irony pervades the scene, sometimes it is wilderness: dance in art is often focused on the female body and men…? Well, they seem to be mere observers or play a secondary role.
Here are some paintings I picked up for you from different Venetian collections. They help understand how dance changed throughout the centuries… However, Venice is a place where museums can also host dance classes, so enjoy the post till its end 🙂
Pietro Longhi and his dance lesson at the Accademia Galleries
In the superb collection of the Accademia Galleries, you can find a distinctive series of paintings by Pietro Longhi (1701-1785). Longhi portrayed the aristocracy of Venice in their intimate, domestic life. All these paintings mirror either daily or extraordinary events which Longhi was commissioned by the same families portrayed. The picnic in the lagoon, the arrival of a rhino during Venice carnival, the chocolate in the morning, the hairdresser, the tailor, the visit of a black servant delivering a letter, the gambling in the casino… dance could not be missing!
Longhi’s dance does not feature as a major event, as we could easily imagine in one of those spectacular parties of the 18th century, possibly in a ballroom designed by Giorgio Massari. It rather shows the lesson of dance at home, as part of the ordinary life of these Venetian patricians, eager to imitate the elegant life and postures in pre-revolution Paris.
So here’s a teacher, his facial expression is rather severe. A beautiful lady in an elegant dress with two large panniers around her hips and her tiny waist moves the neck slightly. She looks at us. The teacher’s finger seems to tell her which next step to make. A violinist accompanies the scene and a lady sitting nearby observes the dance.
While the dancing lady embodies grace and sweetness, holding a handkerchief in her hands, ready to fall off on the floor —maybe to be picked up by somebody…?— nobody else seems to enjoy. It becomes clear, her light smile is part of the dance mimics, the small tiny fingers hold on one finger of the teacher’s hand. On a tool you see a sword abandoned for the moment: that white handkerchief is more important now.
Popular dance in Gabriel Bella at the Querini Stampalia Museum
In another fascinating palace-museum in Venice, Palazzo Querini Stampalia, you can find more about dance in Venetian art. The collection of Gabriel Bella is an extraordinary occasion to see Venetian life outdoors. Regattas, weddings, Carnival events, the parade of courtesans on gondolas, bullfights by the Rialto bridge: many are the subjects you find depicted in Bella’s work.
In one of the paintings portraying Campo Santa Maria Formosa during Candlemas festivity on February 2nd, we see an example of a popular dance, maybe the Furlana. Not too detailed, I am afraid, but we can imagine the joyful rhythm and perceive the sense of fun that is completely missing in the painting by Pietro Longhi. One thing is the lesson, one thing is the real dance.

Gabriel Bella, Festival of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the 2nd February at Santa Maria Formosa, Venice, Querini Stampalia Foundation
Alternatively, you could say one thing is the aristocracy and one thing is the common people’s dance. In Ca’ Rezzonico, this theme gets in Giandomenico Tiepolo’s frescoes twisted in a very interesting way.
Frescoes from Zianigo Villa by Giandomenico Tiepolo at Ca’ Rezzonico
Ca’ Rezzonico, the museum of the 18th century Venice, on the second floor in the late 1930s features some detached frescoes from a villa in Zianigo. Europe-wide well-known artist Giambattista Tiepolo had acquired the villa and in between 1759 and 1797 his son, the talented Giandomenico, frescoed the rooms. Dance appears as a wild Dionysian feast where satyrs like acrobats remind you of ancient Roman bas-reliefs.
But dance appears in two frescoes which are identical. A replica the one of the other, same posture, same size, same composition, same dog barking at the couple dancing.
The only difference: the protagonists. On one side the aristocratic minuet with a lady whose dress seems to be a soap bubble ready to pop. On the other side, the rather boorish, dissolute gesture of a deformed Punch touching the breast of a woman, wearing a scary, deformed mask. Two worlds, the one stiff and codified, the other wild, vulgar but extremely vital: dance in Venetian art seems to well represent the end of the 18th century with the fatal consequences of the French Revolution.
Fortuny, Wagner and Loïe Fuller at the Fortuny Museum
A hundred years later, in 1896 Mariano Fortuny painted “Parsifal Fanciulle Fiore”. It was part of the cycle of works devoted to the themes of Richard Wagner’s music The painting was sent to the 7th International Exhibition in Munich and won the golden medal. When visiting the Fortuny Museum in Venice, in the palace where Fortuny moved to in 1898, you can see this oil panting portraying three women dancing next to his other creations.
Fortuny eclectic talents show at every single corner in this gothic palazzo which used to be his home and atelier till his death in 1949. Wagner inspired him also for his creations for theaters, but when it comes to dance and female fashion, Mariano Fortuny said he was strongly influenced by the American ballet dancer, Loïe Fuller. Meters and meters of silk moving around her body in the serpentine dance struck Fortuny’s creative vein deeply.
Early dance taught in art museum: the case of Palazzo Grimani
Ancient dance in Venice, however, is not just in art works, but also in museums, in the sense that it is also taught in art museums. The Scuola di Musica antica was founded in 1991 and it offers great opportunities to learn what early dance (and music) would be like in the Renaissance and baroque times. While for many years the school would arrange concerts and events in the Querini Stampalia museum, in the recent years their activity has moved to Palazzo Grimani at Santa Maria Formosa, a palace where music was certainly promoted in the past, too.
Ilaria Sainato is a long experienced scholar in early dance. She teaches classes and arranges workshops and seminars, both theoretical and practical in schools, various associations in Italy and abroad. Her approach is to reconstruct dance choreography from treaties of the 15th century (and later), i.e. technique, structure and music.
So, when planning your visit to Venice, do not miss a stop at Palazzo Grimani for its wonderful art. Maybe you will also have the chance to see some events arranged in collaboration with the Scuola di Musica antica.
by Luisella Romeo
registered tourist guide in Venice, Italy
www.seevenice.it