Returning to the Lagoon as the main character of Carnevale Venezia 2024 is Marco Polo. The 2024 edition of the Carnevale di Venezia is themed "Ad Oriente... the extraordinary journey of Marco Polo," The festival honors one of history's greatest explorers, whose journey embodies the spirit of the city: the curiosity, the thirst for knowledge, and the resourcefulness of Venetian merchants are at the core of a lifestyle that has defined the Republic of Venice's entire history in a blend of trade, business, diplomacy, and knowledge of science and geography.
In 2024, the Venice Carnival commenmorates the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death by focusing on the theme of journeys. This includes not only discovering and meeting previously unimagined worlds, but also using travels as a means of self-discovery and realizing how different we are from our initial state. A trip into the imagination that follows the paths Marco, as a young man, took to find new wonders and looks "towards the Orient." A life-changing, previously unthinkable cross-cultural educational experience that altered Marco's trajectory as a youthful ambassador of Venice and the global community at large.
Marco Polo (Venetian: [ˈmaɾko ˈpolo], c. 1254 – 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in The Travels of Marco Polo (also known as Book of the Marvels of the World and Il Milione, c. 1300), a book that described to Europeans the then-mysterious culture and inner workings of the Eastern world, including the wealth and great size of the Mongol Empire and China under the Yuan dynasty, giving their first comprehensive look into China, Persia, India, Japan, and other locations throughout Asia.
Born in Venice, Marco learned the mercantile trade from his father and his uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, who travelled through Asia and met Kublai Khan. In 1269, they returned to Venice to meet Marco for the first time. The three of them embarked on an epic journey to Asia, exploring many places along the Silk Road until they reached "Cathay". They were received by the royal court of Kublai Khan, who was impressed by Marco's intelligence and humility. Marco was appointed to serve as Kublai's foreign emissary, and he was sent on many diplomatic missions throughout the empire and Southeast Asia, such as in present-day Burma, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. As part of this appointment, Marco also travelled extensively inside China, living in the emperor's lands for 17 years and seeing many things that had previously been unknown to Europeans. Around 1291, the Polos also offered to accompany the Mongol princess Kököchin to Persia; they arrived around 1293. After leaving the princess, they travelled overland to Constantinople and then to Venice, returning home after 24 years. At this time, Venice was at war with Genoa; Marco was captured and imprisoned by the Genoans after joining the war effort and dictated his stories to Rustichello da Pisa, a cellmate. He was released in 1299, became a wealthy merchant, married, and had three children. He died in 1324 and was buried in the church of San Lorenzo in Venice.
Though he was not the first European to reach China, Marco Polo was the first to leave a detailed chronicle of his experience. This account of the Orient provided the Europeans with a clear picture of the East's geography and ethnic customs, and was the first Western record of porcelain, gunpowder, paper money, and some Asian plants and exotic animals.
This is a portrait of my Italian friends Paolo as Marco Polo and Laura as Donata Badoer.
The costumes are made by Angelo Poretti.