A trip to Venice would not be complete without visiting the Academy Gallery, another landmark building like St. Mark's Square.
Although Napoleon had plundered Italy's artworks and had not even spared the churches, at least he had not, like the Austrians, torn down the buildings and moved entire monasteries into the Austrian imperial palace.
The Louvre Museum's crown jewel was the Mona Lisa. In theory, the crown jewel of the Academy Gallery in Venice should have been a work by Titian, since Titian was the universally acknowledged representative of the Venetian School.
But Pomona had come to see Leonardo da Vinci's work. Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man manuscript was housed in the Academy Gallery in Venice, and it was not always on display. This time, they had arrived just in time to see it.
The Vitruvian Man was the artwork the gallery used for promotion. It was the only advertisement to be found on the exterior of a Venetian building.
A few centuries ago, no one would have dared enlarge a nude portrait and paste it onto a building's outer wall like this. Modern people could view such paintings from the perspective of "art," yet this kind of "high art" had instead lost its appeal.
Compared with the thronging crowds of St. Mark's Square, the Academy Gallery in Venice had far fewer visitors and was remarkably quiet. Severus had never been interested in such static paintings. He could not even be bothered to glance at the moving portraits on the walls of Hogwarts Castle. He only liked studying spells and magic in his laboratory. There were more people here than at the Golden Palace, and the paintings were more exquisite. Not only were the paintings art, but the exhibition hall itself was a work of art. If she had not