Description
Book SynopsisJacopo de’ Barbari’s
View of Venice, a woodcut first printed in the year 1500, presents a bird’s-eye portrait of Venice at its peak as an international hub of trade, art, and culture. An artistic and cartographic masterpiece of the Renaissance, the
View depicts Venice as a vibrant, waterborne city interconnected by canals and bridges and filled with ornate buildings, elaborate gardens, and seafaring vessels. The contributors to
A View of Venice: Portrait of a Renaissance City draw on a high-resolution digital scan of the over nine-foot-wide composite print to examine the complexities of this extraordinary woodcut and portrayal of early modern Venetian life. The essays show how the
View constitutes an advanced material artifact of artistic, humanist, and scientific culture. They also outline the ways the print reveals information about the city’s economic and military power, religious and social infrastructures, and cosmopolitan reside
Trade Review“This intriguing book guides the reader on a compelling journey around the physical and social milieu of Renaissance Venice. Its magisterial essays invite the viewer to take an imaginary walk through the city’s empty streets, as seen in Jacopo de’ Barbari’s celebrated bird's-eye view of 1500. The book guides us step-by-step from the map’s stunning artistic virtuosity into the cosmopolitan lives of the people who inhabited the fabric of the city.” -- Deborah Howard, Professor Emerita, University of Cambridge
“
A View of Venice offers an engaging consideration of the ideation, creation, historical significance, idiosyncrasies, and scholarly potential of Jacopo de’ Barbari’s
View. A fascinating and valuable collection of research and analysis of de' Barbari’s remarkable print and of the Venice in which he lived and worked, this volume will greatly interest general readers and specialists alike.” -- Gary M. Radke, Professor Emeritus of Art History, Syracuse University
"One of the most remarkable Venice books in decades, the kind of thorough and detailed study of a city caught in time that scholars can only dream about for most other hinge-points in history. De’ Barbari’s
View cost the hefty sum of three florins, and as these scholars make clear, there were plenty of buyers for something that must have seemed borderline miraculous in an era before photography.
A View of Venice is the definitive anatomy of that miracle." -- Steve Donoghue * Open Letters Review *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations xi
Abbreviations xvii
Acknowledgments xix
Prologue. Story of the Edited Volume / Kristin Love Huffman and Andrea Bellieni xxiii
Plates xxvii
Introduction. The
View as an Urban Portrait / Kristin Love Huffman 1
I. The
View as a Printed Cartographic and Artistic Visualization
1. The
View of Venice in a Genealogy of City Views and Government Mapping / Karen-edis Barzman 25
2. A City as a World: Jacopo de’ Barbari’s
View in 1500 / Piero Falchetta 40
3. A Perspectival Investigation of Jacopo de’ Barbari’s
View of Venice / Cosimo Monteleone 50
4. An Artist’s Address Book: Notes on Venice’s Artistic Geography / Giorgio Tagliaferro 62
5. Beyond Venice: At the Margins of the
View / Anna Christine Swartwood House 75
6. Vessels of Political Communication / Monique O’Connell 86
7. Navigating the Business of Print in Venice with Jacopo de’ Barbari / Bronwen Wilson 96
8. On the Collection History of the
View’s Matrices / Valeria Cafá 107
9. The Graphic Inventions of Jacopo de’ Barbari / Kristin Love Huffman 119
10. Revisiting “lontani et altra fantaxia”: An Eyckian Perspective on Giovanni Bellini and Jacopo de’ Barbari / Mary Pardo 136
11. Jacopo de’ Barbari, a Wandering Court Artist in the North: Changing Perspectives on His Role in Northern Renaissance Art / Rangsook Yoon 150
II. The
View as a Reflection of Venice and Venetian Life
12. Toward the Perfect City: Urban Development in the Quattrocento / Richard Goy 163
13. The Wellhead as an Amenity of Venetian Urban Space / Patricia Fortini Brown 176
14. Hidden in Plain Sight (and Hearing): Venetian Bells and Their Towers / Jonathan Glixon 189
15. Santa Lucia and Corpus Domini at the Turn of the Sixteenth Century: The
View and Urban Patterns / Saundra Weddle 199
16. Monastic and Convent Life as a City Phenomenon / Ludovica Galeazzo 212
17. Gendered Space(s) and the
View / Holly Hurlburt 226
18. Wifely Mobility in Renaissance Venice / Stanley Chojnacki 238
19. Two Palaces, a Chapel, and an Art Collection on the Grand Canal: The World of Domenico di Piero in Jacopo de’ Barbari’s
View of Venice / Giada Damen 250
20. Luxury Goods in Jacopo de’ Barbari’s Venice / Blake de Maria 260
21. “Both by Sea and Land”: Venetian Trade and Retail in the
View / Julia A. DeLancey 273
22. Imagining Social and Political Relations in the
View: From Piazza San Marco to Murano / Maartje van Gelder and Claire Judde de Larivière
23. Cosmopolitanism in Venice and State Strategies / Martina Massaro 295
Epilogue. Venice Lost, and Found / Tracy E. Cooper 307
Appendix 1. The
View and Its Relevance Today: Venice Then and Now / Kristen Love Huffman 315
Appendix 2. Anton Kolb’s Copyright Permission and Export License Request for the
View of Venice 336
Appendix 3. Will of Anton Kolb, October 12, 1541 338
Bibliography 341
Contributors 381
Index 391
Image Credits 409