Venice Empty

In the grand tradition of linking to posts on other blogs, enjoy these soothing but creepy photos of Venice emptied out of tourists, the piazzas and alleys and canals barren even at rush hour. Even though the pink light of sunset is sinking down the sides of the villas, the moment in the day when all anyone should want to do is be outside to see it. They were taken by Steven Varni, an ex-pat of Brooklyn.

They remind me of the Greek-Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico, who presaged the Surrealists proper with his depictions of empty plazas and marooned classical statues. Here's "The Red Tower" from 1913.

Looks, uh, pretty familiar. The tension of de Chirico's empty spaces is something I feel whenever I walk outside now, the air charged with some still-abstract dread.