The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

San Zaccaria, Venice

1995

Thomas Struth

(German, b. 1954)
Germany, 20th century
Chromogenic print face-mounted to acrylic
Image: 182 x 230.5 cm (71 5/8 x 90 3/4 in.)
Louis D. Kacalieff, M.D. Fund 1996.13
© Thomas Struth
Location: Not on view

Description

In 1989, Thomas Struth began a remarkable series of large-scale color photographs of people visiting art museums around the world. He recorded people looking at art—a common, yet difficult-to-describe activity that combines aesthetics, education, and entertainment. Taken in the summer of 1995 in Venice, on a four-day shoot that produced 60 negatives, this immense photograph depicts the interior of the church of San Zaccaria (originally designed by Antonio di Marco Gambello in the Gothic style and completed in the later 15th century by Maruo Coducci in the Renaissance style). Struth set up his camera at eye level, focusing directly on Giovanni Bellini's magnificent altarpiece of 1505, "The Virgin and Child with Saints Peter, Catherine, Lucy, and Jerome." He then captured on film the poses and attitudes of visitors contemplating the artistic embellishments of a building intended not as a museum, but as a place of worship.
  • Struth, Thomas, and Douglas Eklund. Thomas Struth, 1977-2002. Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art, 2002. Reproduced p. 127, mentioned p. 177
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 68-69, 348
    Cleveland Museum of Art, “The Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Major Works,” March 18, 1996, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 36 no. 10, December 1996 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 5 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 317
  • BIG: Photographs from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 12-October 9, 2016).
    Thomas Struth. The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (organizer) (May 8-August 18, 2002); The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA (September 15, 2002-January 5, 2003); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Chicago, IL (June 28-September 28, 2003).
    Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997).
  • {{cite web|title=San Zaccaria, Venice|url=false|author=Thomas Struth|year=1995|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1996.13