Temple as landing point

First Collage of model creating a conceptual context - Author

'"Ah! Stali," struck sharp upon the ear, and the prow turned aside under the mighty cornices that half met over the narrow canal, where the splash of the water followed close and loud, ringing along the marble by the boat's side; and when at last that boat darted forth upon the breadth of silver sea, across which the front of the Ducal palace, flushed with its sanguine veins, looks to the snowy dome of Our Lady of Salvation, it was no marvel that the mind should be so deeply entranced by the visionary charm of a scene so beautiful and so strange, as to forget the darker truths of its history and its being.'

John Ruskin, 'The Stones of Venice' vol.II

When one embarks upon a new land, the threshold between water and terrafirma, the liminal speaks loud.

How many sailors, fishermen, merchants have returned to the islands of Venice grateful of their safe passage? How many rush to the churches to give thanks to their god for this blessing.

A relief from the will of the sea.

There are those who find no such relief, being admitted to the Kingdom of Neptune.

In Monteverdi's opera for the 1639-40 Carnevale season in Venice, Neptune appears as a god worthy of fear.
The old gods die hard in the cultural memory of this city.

NEPTUNE

Man is proud and the cause of his own guilt even though remotely.

Courteous heaven is only too willing to pardon the offence.

Human freedom wages war against destiny, fights with fate,

dares all, risks all, regards itself as indomitable,

and the will of man struggles against heaven.

But, if benign Jupiter pardons too readily the transgressions of man,

he holds, at will, the lighting idle in his mighty right hand.

Unavenged he holds it.

But Neptune does not suffer human guilt with his own dishonour!

English Translation of Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria.

Act I Scene IV