Sea and Sky as Primordial Elements in Platen’s Sonette aus Venedig

Abstract

Venice might be thought of as a location between land and water, but the land-water surface of Venice is a work of art, not earth. The building of this surface upon stilts began during the period of Barbarian invasions of Rome in the fifth and sixth centuries, by refugees from the mainland who in time established a Republic that lasted over a thousand years. August von Platen visited Venice 27 years after the Republic’s capitulation, while it was under Austrian occupation. Sonette aus Venedig weaves an aesthetic fugue of sea and sky as primordial elements (with minimal but noteworthy references to land), to offer Venice up as heavenly Aphrodite, the personification of the beautiful work of art. But art no longer mediates between humanity and divinity, and the heavenly beauty seems to survive in echoes, shadows, and dreams. The cycle also offers reflection on the image of the refugees, not washing up on the shore, but fleeing from land to sea, to build a conduit for tradition during a barbarian rupture.