A new exhibition of self portraits here is a must-see event for art enthusiasts keen to know more about the personalities of greats like Raphael, Tintoretto, Velazquez and Chagall.
The show will run at the lagoon city's Palazzo Fianchetti, the home of the Veneto Institute of Sciences and Arts, until May 6.
It features around 70 works and covers the period from the 16th-century to the present day.
The exhibits come from the massive self-portrait collection of Florence's Uffizi Gallery.
The Venice exhibition is a rare opportunity to see many of these fascinating paintings, as there is not enough space at the Uffizi to have them on permanent display.
"The aim of the exhibition is to enable people to reflect on the personalities of the artists, on how they saw themselves and how they intended to be seen by their public," said Antonio Paolucci, the former arts superintendent of Florence, who had the idea for the show.
"So it is a combination of art and psychology, art and ideology, art and vanity and, in some cases, art and neurosis.
"It is a beautiful, intriguing show that has never been staged before".
Among the highlights is Raphael's celebrated self-portrait painted in 1506.
In it he depicts himself in a black hat and cloak, his face suggesting a sensitive, slightly melancholy soul.
The other Renaissance big name featured is Tintoretto, with a work painted in 1585.
The pick of the 17th-century work is perhaps Diego Velazquez's painting of his own moustached face.
In it his eyes brim with Spanish pride as they stare back at the viewer, almost defiantly.
There is also a notable 1655 work by Rembrandt, one of the most prolific self-portraitists in the history of art.
The show's big attraction from the modern era is Marc Chagall's dream-like all-blue self-portrait.
It has a full-length woman cutting across his forehead and a moon-lit city at night and a partridge in the background.
Other artists to feature in the exhibition include Baroque greats Annibale Carracci and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Venetian sculptor Antonio Canova, 19th-century Romantic painter Francesco Hayez and modern Italian artists Giovanni Boldini, Carlo Carra' and Mimmo Paladino.
Tickets to the show, entitled Autoritratti, I volti dell'Arté (Self Portraits, The Faces of Art), cost nine euros.
