Venice: Lion City: The Religion of Empire Book

Venice: Lion City focuses on the history and people of Venice in the 15th-16th centuries as depicted and reflected in mostly religious art and architecture. It's an interesting treatment of the imperial age of Venice through the works and lives of its Renaissance artists including Titian, the Bellinis, Veronese, Tintoretto, Carpaccio and Lotto. Palaces and churches of master architects Palladio, Sansovino and Codussi are also vividly described and assessed. Far less attention is paid to sculpture.
This illustrated history of select color plates and about 100 not so finely reproduced black and white photos of art and architecture shows the prolific output of the Venetian artists and their studios that adorn many of the churches in the city as well as preserved in such local museums as the Accademia and other museums around the world.
The classes of Venice, each with codes of conduct, have their own chapters from the Doge to the merchants, nobles, privileged youth, Jews and women. Warrior saints and plague saints and churches of the period are also featured.
This is a deeply researched but highly individualistic cultural/art history of imperial Venice that ends with the Great Plague that decimated half the the population and led to the gradual end of the Venetian empire.