Malcesine on Lake Garda

In an old dictionary Malcesine is classified as a “small market town in the Venetian province of Verona on the east bank of Lake Garda with a small port and fortifications, population of 2030 people”. The small market town, located on the upper eastern part of Lake Garda has evolved into a popular albeit overcrowded, tourist hotspot in the last one hundred years, although the population of Malcesine did not substantially increase correlative to the rise of popularity.

Klimt depicts the historical city center, which has been built around the castle hill, with its closely huddled houses and narrow alleyways. The castle hill itself is dominated by the not completely visible Castello Scaligeri, a small fortress that has been built on the orders of the Scaligeri family, a noble house that ruled Verona during the thirteenth century. The lower half of the castle housed a Venetian garrison throughout the seventeenth century.

The painting is characterized by its earthy colour scheme that features prominently in the walls of the castle and most houses as well as on the shingled roofs. Composition-wise, the painting is framed by the Castello and its looming tower on the upper border and by the lake on the lower border, which creates the overall impression of constriction and narrowness. This is contrasted by the open maquis-covered hills that are visible beyond the roofs and the empty streets at the seafront; the narrowness of the city is opposed by the openness of nature and the tranquillity of the deserted streets. The left half of the painting is filled by the Palazzo dei Capitani, another building from the thirteenth century that was the residence of Malcesine’s Venetian rulers, the Capitani del Lago.

Today the boardwalk of Malcesine is the complete opposite of the scene shown in Klimt’s painting: instead of the deep serenity, it’s rather characterized by the bustling activity that comes in the wake of the tourist season.