Basilica S.Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

This guide to the Basilica dei Frari in Venice follows a tomb the sculptor Antonio Canova designed in 1794 to honor Titian, a pyramid with mourning figures climbing its sides that was never built to his plan. It traces what happened decades later when Canova himself died, and how his grieving students found the old drawing sitting in a drawer. Listen for the symbolism carved into the figures flanking the door, from a mourning lion to a serpent biting its own tail.