The Little Merchant House 1

Sheila O'Rourke, PhD Anthropology and Art UCI facultu writes: "The story of Venice is about a special kind of people. Extremely resilient and resourceful people who loved where they were, and did not let pillaging marauders chase them off or wipe them out.  They simply built a fortified city on top of muddy, shallow waters beyond the reach of trouble and danger. And then they took advantage of maritime transportation to become a city in the sea of merchants. So many acquired great wealth and built fabulously ornate palazzi on the grand flowing waterways; architectural splendors anchored into the mud with wooden pilings and filled with treasures from exotic places; from Shanghai, Istanbul, Cairo, and Mumbai. And then there was one merchant – he built a somewhat simple red villa amongst a row of his colleagues’ ornate palaces. He did well for himself, obviously, but not quite as well as his neighbors.  One wonders:   was he content with his certainly respectable financial success, or was he dissatisfied, always hoping the next shipment would make him richer? This master photograph, in all its technical expertise and visual glory, holds tight the secret of the little merchant house of Venice".