Venice is commemorating its most famous citizen Marco Polo with a major exhibition to mark the 700th anniversary of his death.
The show, which opened in early April, features excavated finds, maps and books and can be seen in the Doge’s Palace until September 29. It also includes loans from many countries that the merchant from the Italian lagoon city travelled to, from Armenia to Mongolia and China.
The exhibition “I Mondi di Marco Polo” (“The Worlds of Marco Polo”) is one of the highlights of a year of Marco Polo events in Venice.
The city, which now has fewer than 50,000 permanent residents, is trying to attract even more visitors to Venice, even as the city grapples with the problem of mass tourism. This year’s carnival was also organized under the motto of “The Amazing Journey of Marco Polo”.
The most famous Venetian to this day is believed to have been born into a family of merchants in 1254. His father and uncle were already doing business in the Far East.
Together with them, Marco Polo set off on a journey in 1271 – when he was only 17 years old – that took him as far as Asia. He only returned to his home town almost a quarter of a century later.
He then reported on his adventures in a widely read book, which was eventually given the title “Il Milione”. He died in his home town at the age of almost 70 as a highly respected merchant.
There are doubts about some of the accounts of his travels, but overall they are regarded as reliable testimony of the time.
More than 300 artefacts are on display in the Doge’s Palace. These include the handwritten will and early editions of his adventures.
One drawing of a young merchant is described as follows: “This is the noble knight Marcho Polo of Venice, the greatest land traveller, who describes the great wonders of the world to us”.
However the picture is pure fiction: Nobody knows what Marco Polo actually looked like. There is no credible portrait from his lifetime.
In Italy, many people still associate his appearance with his supposed likeness on the earlier 1,000 lire note: an older, stern-looking man with long white hair and a full beard.
In a Hollywood film from 1938, to which the exhibition refers, he was meanwhile portrayed by a clean-shaven Gary Cooper. A bust of Marco Polo from the 19th century with a bald head can also be seen in the Doge’s Palace.
To mark the 700th anniversary of the legendary traveller’s death, museums from all over the world provided exhibits from countries that Marco Polo travelled through at the time: Chinese art from various dynasties, but also finds from Armenia, Mongolia and Iran.
In addition, the house in which Marco Polo lived after his return to Venice is reconstructed on screens with the help of software. A plaque now hangs on the new building that stands there today, very close to the Rialto Bridge.
There is still no monument to Marco Polo in the lagoon city. This exhibition is the next best thing.
