Venetian Bridge Brawls in 17th and 18th Century Art

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/venice-bridge-fights/

by pepys • 27 days ago

62 32 27 days ago

bbkane• 24 days ago

I love reading the little vignettes of history. Thanks for posting!

Cockbrand2• 24 days ago

Gotta love how some of the spectators on the larger Joseph Heintz the Younger painting enjoy the entertainment. Too bad that these images predate the invention of popcorn!

jihadjihad• 24 days ago

predate the invention of popcorn

Popcorn's been around for thousands of years.

Cockbrand2• 24 days ago

Let me correct myself:

Too bad that these images predate the wide availability of popcorn in the old world and its common usage as a snack eaten during entertainment.

nailer2• 24 days ago

If anyone's played Assassin's Creed II (or any of the Ezio games) (these older games were produced with help from historians) Ezio's scar comes from a street fight on Ponte Vecchio in Venice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKTXd7L01pI2

ziofill• 24 days ago

Ponte Vecchio is in Florence

coffeecantcode• 24 days ago

Interested in whether these bridge brawls were isolated to just Venice, maybe tanners and butchers had it out on all checks notes 3 of Florence’s main bridges

nailer2• 24 days ago

You're right, Florence!

bigmattystyles• 24 days ago

One time my wife and I were watching a documentary on Florence and I was convinced we’d been there, was asking my wife when we went. Turns out I’d played too much AC.

jubilee333• 24 days ago

Great art is rooted in the hardest of human emotion. Is why we look back to ancient culture with reverance and sometimes nostalgia. We wouldn't want to be there in the midst of the brawl, most of us moderns would rather jump from the bridge. But our human spirit and memory recognizes the suffering and sacrifices of the ancestors. It's why there really isn't any "great art" anymore, at least in the classical sense, as those with the means to produce it don't have any great emotions. We will probably get there again, but like an LLM, sometimes humans need to reconstitute the entire corpus to make a rather small change

AlecSchueler2• 24 days ago

It's why there really isn't any "great art" anymore, at least in the classical sense

This is a tautology, no? There's plenty of great art being made today by people feeling the same emotions as those in the past.

jubilee333• 24 days ago

Well "great" is rather subjective. But in terms of collective agreement we can conclusive say there really isn't anything like the art of the past made today. As an artist I was invited to a much vaunted exhibition in Venice itself recently. It consisted of a woman sitting in urine ...but with a kind message asking bystanders to please not poop in her tank.. The link if you fail to believe it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/arts/design/venice-bienna...

Modern art and artists indeed do mirror the feeling of their age.

soiltype5• 24 days ago

those with the means to produce it don't have any great emotions.

Actually, re-reading your original post, this comes across as so asinine I do have to wonder if I'm replying to an LLM. Because it makes no sense to say that artists don't have emotions today that can compare to checks notes rowdy Venetians beating the shit out of each other.

Insanity• 24 days ago

It’s a new account (2h old as of me commenting) and it does read like LLM content to me.

bryanrasmussen3• 24 days ago

there are incredibly wide swathes of society which go on about modern decadence and have outsized respect for violence as being somehow ennobling. As an example some people think the tough guys of the past who killed each other over women's handkerchiefs were real men and possessed of emotions more potent than those of the girly men that exist nowadays. This is not necessarily what was being claimed, just that there are claims like that so not sure why anyone crossing similar regions needs to be thought an LLM.

That said >it makes no sense to say that artists don't have emotions today that can compare to...rowdy Venetians beating the shit out of each other.

The rowdy Venetians beating the shit out of each other came from a society with strict rules about honor and dueling, and they dueled over honor.

So I'm not sure if the artists of today do have emotions that compare to the particular emotions that were very common in a society with duels for honor that had a significantly different economic and educational system than our own.

Sure we're all humans, but we're not all exactly the same despite that.

pavel_lishin2• 24 days ago

We wouldn't want to be there in the midst of the brawl, most of us moderns would rather jump from the bridge.

People in some moshpits would beg to differ.

ButlerianJihad• 24 days ago

For any outsiders who have never experienced authentic mosh-pit dancing, I wish to testify to their value.

A good, organized mosh-pit is a safe place, and even a place where men (ok mostly men) can find camaraderie, encouragement and support. Mosh-pits are enjoyed by guys with some anger issues or simply need to get out aggression in a controlled way, and yeah, they wear spikes and leather and pull off their shirts, but the actual mosh-pit dancing is structured, ritualized, and supportive.

The mosh-pits I've danced in begin with a central "vortex" of guys who begin marching/stomping in a circular direction and flailing their arms around, mostly to establish a "personal space" or a "keep out zone" to indicate they're actively moving. And then they contrive to bump/bash into one another. And there are also bystanders or non-participants who stay on the border of this dance circle who also have the active role of keeping the dancers on-track and acting like the ropes in a boxing ring, cushioning them and bouncing them back into the vortex. The dancers aren't punching or kicking or striking to hurt others, but the physical contact is authentic and helps them feel alive. There's an informal choreography and style to mosh-pit dancing that's been refined over decades; styles may differ but they usually converge based on genres and locale.

Though these guys may be individually angry and bitter, and the music we're dancing to is abrasive, aggressive and rough, the dancers can respect one another, and they hold themselves to an honor code of safety and concern for others' well-being, because it is, ultimately, a catharsis and a dance, in a club or venue among neighbors and friends, and while a few bad apples can spoil a night's fun, I was pleasantly surprised when I tried it out myself.

blue1• 24 days ago

On Ponte dei Pugni (Bridge of Fists), which was the most famous venue for these spectacles, there are marble feet markings which were the starting positions for fighters.

Venetian Bridge Brawls in 17th and 18th Century Art

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