traveldk.com

The ceiling vault of the opulent reading room (sale monumentali), inside the Libreria Sansoviniana, collapsed in 1545 and its architect Sansovino imprisoned – he was released to complete the job at his own expense. Titian selected artists for the decorations; Veronese was awarded a gold chain for the best work.

Bedecked with gilt and stucco decorations by Alessandro Vittoria, the 16th-century staircase leads from a monumental entrance on the piazza to the halls of the old library.

This prolific Byzantine artist is featured in the Pinacoteca’s Room 25 (part of Museo Correr), with glowing two-dimensional religious portraits (1290–1302).

This showy Neo-Classical creation was built for Napoleon. It is now used for exhibitions.

Carpaccio’s masterpiece of well-dressed ladies (1500–10) is in Room 38 of the Museo Correr. First thought to depict courtesans, the women are, in fact, awaiting their menfolk’s return from hunting.

Pride of place in Room 32 of the Museo Correr goes to Jacopo de’ Barbari’s prospective map-layout of Venice (1497–1500), painstakingly engraved on six pear-wood panels.

Works by the talented Bellini family are on display in Room 36 of the Pinacoteca: the poignant Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels (1453–5) by the best known, Giovanni; head of the family, Jacopo’s Crucifixion (1450) and son Gentile’s portrait of Doge Giovanni Mocenigo (1475).

Foremost sculptor of his time, works by Antonio Canova (1767–1822) in the Museo Correr include his acclaimed statue Daedalus and Icarus.

Once prized as the horn of the fabled unicorn, this 1.6-m-long (5-ft) tusk from the rare whale has been superbly carved with Jesse’s and Jesus’s family tree (Room 40 in Museo Correr).

Wooden sandals 60 cm (2 ft) high, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, illustrate the stiff demands of 15th–17th-century fashions (Room 48).