Gallerie dell'Accademia

This guide to the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice centers on a small, mysterious canvas by Giorgione, a Venetian painter who died in his early thirties — a soldier, a nursing woman, and a bolt of lightning that nobody, then or now, can agree how to read. It follows the theories, from a biblical flight to a Greek myth, and the poet Byron's love for a painting that refuses to explain itself. You'll also hear how this former convent and confraternity hall became a gallery under Napoleon, and what else fills the rooms around this one small canvas.