Larkin Goldsmith Mead

Larkin Goldsmith Mead’s Venezia is both a personification of the city of Venice as the “Bride of the Sea” and a portrait of Mead’s own betrothed, Marietta di Benvenuti, the daughter of his Venetian landlord. Like a marble statue of a classical goddess, she wears symbols and attributes to make her allegorical identity legible. On her head rests a crown of pearls with a scallop in the center, upon which is carved the silhouette of a gondola. Her bodice is covered with an intricate web resembling seaweed as well as the fine lace-work for which Venetian weavers were famous. Mead employs a variety of textures throughout the piece, from the polished smooth skin of the face to the sparkling crystalline hair, demonstrating his command of marble and its imitative effects.