Jacopo de' Barbari - View of Venice - Google Art Project

''View of Venice'', also known as the de' Barbari Map, is a monumental woodcut print showing a

bird's-eye view A bird's-eye view is an elevated view of an object or location from a very steep viewing angle, creating a perspective as if the observer were a bird in flight looking downwards. Bird's-eye views can be an aerial photograph, but also a draw ...

of the city of

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

from the southwest. It bears the title and date "VENETIE MD" ("Venice 1500"). It was printed from six wooden blocks designed from 1498 to 1500 by

Jacopo de' Barbari Jacopo de' Barbari, sometimes known or referred to as de'Barbari, de Barberi, de Barbari, Barbaro, Barberino, Barbarigo or Barberigo (c. 1460/70 – before 1516), was an Italian painter, printmaker and miniaturist with a highly individual style. ...

, and then published in late 1500 by the Nuremberg publisher

Anton Kolb Anton may refer to: People *Anton (given name), including a list of people with the given name *Anton (surname) Places *Anton Municipality, Bulgaria **Anton, Sofia Province, a village *Antón District, Panama **Antón, a town and capital of th ...

on six large sheets of paper, each measuring about , to create a composite image measuring approximately . The individual sheets of paper were the largest produced in Europe up to that time. The finished work has an approximate scale of 1:1,250 (east-west) and 1:2,750 (north-south) and was probably intended for display on a wall. Examples of the three states of the print are held by public collections. The six large wooden printing blocks would have been carved by professional cutters, following preparatory drawings made by Jacopo de' Barbari. The six original blocks, probably made from walnut, now with splits and damage from woodworm, are in the

Museo Correr The Museo Correr () is a museum in Venice, northern Italy. Located in St. Mark's Square, Venice, it is one of the 11 civic museums run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. The museum extends along the southside of the square on the upper ...

in Venice. The print is one of the first large bird's-eye cityscape views, and may have been inspired by views of Florence by

Francesco Rosselli Francesco Rosselli (1445 – before 1513) was an Italian miniature painter, and engraver of maps and old master prints. He was described as a cartographer, although his contribution did not include any primary research and was probably limi ...

from the 1480s. It may be the earliest surviving comprehensive view of Venice: earlier views by

Leon Battista Alberti Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. H ...

and

Jacopo Bellini Jacopo Bellini (c. 1400 – c. 1470) was one of the founders of the Renaissance style of painting in Venice and northern Italy. His sons Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, and his son-in-law Andrea Mantegna, were also famous painters. Few of Belli ...

are believed to be lost. "Jacopo de' Barbari's View of Venice: Map Making, City Views, and Moralized Geography before the Year 1500"
Juergen Schulz, The Art Bulletin, Vol. 60, No. 3 (Sep., 1978), pp. 425-474 The

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

quotes an article by art historian

Martin Kemp Martin John Kemp (born 10 October 1961) is an English musician and actor, best known as the bassist in the new wave band Spandau Ballet and for his role as Steve Owen in ''EastEnders''. He is the younger brother of Gary Kemp, who is also ...

in 1991 in which he says it is "an achievement of astonishing visual and intellectual control".

Description

The print shows Venice and the surrounding islands in the Venetian lagoon, including

Burano Burano is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy, near Torcello at the northern end of the lagoon, known for its lace work and brightly coloured homes. The primary economy is tourism. Geography Burano is from Venice, a 45-minute t ...

Giudecca Giudecca (; vec, Zueca) is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, in northern Italy. It is part of the '' sestiere'' of Dorsoduro and is a locality of the ''comune'' of Venice. Geography Giudecca lies immediately south of the central islands of Ve ...

Mazzorbo Mazzorbo is one of various islands in the northern part of the Lagoon of Venice. Like the other islands in this part of the lagoon, it was the site one of the earliest settlements in the lagoon which predated the development of Venice. However, t ...

Murano Murano is a series of islands linked by bridges in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. It lies about north of Venice and measures about across with a population of just over 5,000 (2004 figures). It is famous for its glass making. It was on ...

, and

Torcello Torcello ( la, Torcellum; vec, Torceło) is a sparsely populated island at the northern end of the Venetian Lagoon, in north-eastern Italy. It was first settled in 452 CE and has been referred to as the parent island from which Venice was p ...

The Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

to the north line the horizon along the top edge. The names of some locations and buildings are printed. The print shows the location of Venetian churches and other buildings, including 103 bell towers. The city is depicted in a realistic form, like a topographical landscape view, with large or important buildings generally depicted on the same scale as smaller or less important ones. The buildings and street plan are simplified in some areas, and the heights of many buildings are exaggerated, to make towers taller than they should be in proportion to their length or width: so for example the

Doge's Palace The Doge's Palace ( it, Palazzo Ducale; vec, Pałaso Dogal) is a palace built in Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice in northern Italy. The palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the supreme auth ...

is depicted about 50% taller than compared to its width. The apparent accuracy of the print has led some commentators to suggest that it may be based on a ground survey, perhaps with observations from the city's bell towers, but the analysis of Juergen Schulz in 1978 suggests this is not entirely correct. Rather, according to Schulz, de' Barbari seems to have started his drawing on the right side (east), perhaps based on plans used for maintenance of the city's waterways, and progressively compressed and distorted the scale as he ran out of space moving towards the left (west) edge. However

Deborah Howard Deborah Janet Howard, (born 1946) is a British art historian and academic. Her principal research interests are the art and architecture of Venice and the Veneto; the relationship between Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean, and music and archit ...

has suggested as the production of the work had taken three years and had been so expensive that the distortion was not an accident, and that the layout of the city in the woodcut was deliberately distorted for the iconographic purpose of making the shape of Venice resemble a dolphin, with its rounded head to the left and tail to the right. Howard notes the continued dolphin-like representation of the city's outline in maps made as late as the 19th century, echoing de' Barbari's print.

Winds and deities

Around the edge are eight personifications of winds, two on each side, labelled with the names of the twelve

classical compass winds In the ancient Mediterranean world, the classical compass winds were names for the points of geographic direction and orientation, in association with the winds as conceived of by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Ancient wind roses typically had tw ...

Anemoi In ancient Greek religion and myth, the Anemoi (Greek: , 'Winds') were wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came (see Classical compass winds), and were each associated with various seasons an ...

: clockwise from the top, Septentrio (T), Aquilo and Fulturnus (G), Subsolanus (cross), Eurus and Eurauster (S), Auster (O), Auster Affricus and Affricus (A), Favonius (P), Corus and Circius (M). The letters refer to the traditional labels of the

compass rose A compass rose, sometimes called a wind rose, rose of the winds or compass star, is a figure on a compass, map, nautical chart, or monument used to display the orientation of the cardinal directions (north, east, south, and west) and their i ...

: Tramontana to the north, Greco to the northeast, Levante to the east,

Sirocco Sirocco ( ), scirocco, or, rarely, siroc (see below) is a Mediterranean wind that comes from the Sahara and can reach hurricane speeds in North Africa and Southern Europe, especially during the summer season. Names ''Sirocco'' derives from ...

to the southeast, Ostro to the south, Affricus to the southwest, Ponente to the west, and Maestro (

Mistral Mistral may refer to: * Mistral (wind) in southern France and Sardinia Automobiles * Maserati Mistral, a Maserati grand tourer produced from 1963 until 1970 * Nissan Mistral, or Terrano II, a Nissan 4×4 produced from 1993 until 2006 * Microp ...

) to the northwest. The positions of each wind are more determined more by artistic considerations than the true orientation of the city in the image. At the top of the print is a depiction of Mercury, the Roman god of commerce, with the inscription "MERCVRIVS PRECETERIS HVIC FAVSTE EMPORIIS ILLVSTRO" (Latin: "I Mercury shine favourably on this above all other emporia".

Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times ...

, Roman god of the seas, with a trident, rides a dolphin in the harbour, accompanied by an inscription reading "AEQVORA TVENS PORTV RESIDEO HIC NEPTVNVS" (Latin: "I Neptune reside here smoothing the harbour waters"). The Latin title, "VENETI " is given in the

locative case In grammar, the locative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases, together with the ...

, specifically locating the image with the gods "At Venice" or "In Venice". The two gods are slightly offset from the centre of the composite print to lie either side of and emphasise the important area from the

Rialto The Rialto is a central area of Venice, Italy, in the ''sestiere'' of San Polo. It is, and has been for many centuries, the financial and commercial heart of the city. Rialto is known for its prominent markets as well as for the monumental Ria ...

to the

Piazza San Marco Piazza San Marco (; vec, Piasa San Marco), often known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as ''la Piazza'' ("the Square"). All other urban spaces in the city (exc ...

Authorship and Publication

On 30 October 1500, the

Signoria of Venice The Signoria of Venice (''Serenissima Signoria'') was the supreme body of government of the Republic of Venice. The older Commune of Venice was replaced by the Signoria from 1423 on, being later officially adopted in the ''Promissione Ducale'' by ...

gave the publisher

an exemption from duties on the export of the print, and also the exclusive right to reproduce the print for the next four years. The publication of the print in October 1500 was independently mentioned in the contemporaneous diary of the Venetian writer

Marino Sanuto the Younger Marin Sanudo, italianised as Marino Sanuto or Sanuto the Younger (May 22, 1466 – 1536), was a Venetian historian and diarist. His most significant work is his ''Diarii'', which he had intended to write up into a history of Venice. Biography ...

. In his application to the Signoria, Kolb had stated that the print took three years to prepare, but he did not name the artist. Because of its high quality the print was traditionally attributed to

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...

, but that attribution was doubted from the 18th century. Today it is confidently attributed to the Venetian painter and printmaker

, whose details recall German masters. He marks his works with the caduceus, in this case carried by the figure of Mercury at the top. Until his paintings were identified, his works were attributed to the

notname In art history, a ''Notname'' (, "necessity-name" or "contingency-name") is an invented name given to an artist whose identity has been lost. The practice arose from the need to give such artists and their typically untitled, or generically title ...

"Master of the Caduceus". The windgods resemble the faces of his engravings. The attribution relies on stylistic and technical resemblances further as well as on the documented association with Kolb after the publication. Between 1500 and 1504 they were employed by

Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (22 March 1459 – 12 January 1519) was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death. He was never crowned by the pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians. He proclaimed himself El ...

. Jacopos print is an accomplished High Renaissance work with detailed components compared to Rosselli's Florence print.

Prints

To recoup the costs the prints had to be sold at least for three

ducat The ducat () coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages from the 13th to 19th centuries. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wi ...

s, a considerable sum, similar to the monthly wage of a master painter. Examples soon entered the collections of wealthy collectors from church and state, who may have sufficient wall space to display the assembled composite print as intended, pasted on a linen support or directly onto the wall. Three states of the print are known, with the second state in two variants. Around a dozen (different sources say 11, 12 or 13) impressions of the first state of the woodcut are known, and a similar number of the other two states. The unusually large number of surviving prints suggests that the work was treated as a valuable work of art, rather than a working topographical image. The first state published in 1500 shows

St Mark's Campanile St Mark's Campanile ( it, Campanile di San Marco, ) is the bell tower of St Mark's Basilica in Venice, Italy. The current campanile is a reconstruction completed in 1912, the previous tower having collapsed in 1902. At in height, it is the tal ...

with a temporary flat roof after it was struck by lightning and caught fire in 1489. The second state was published c. 1514; it was altered to show the Campanile as restored in 1511–4 after it was damaged by an earthquake in 1511, and the original date (MD - 1500) was removed: one variant leaves a blank space where the date was in the first state, and another fills the space with horizontal hatching. The third state was published later in the 16th century, adding back the date (MD), and with the Campanile altered again to show a much cruder version of the flat-roofed depiction in the first state (but forgetting to remove the angel-shaped weather vane added on top of the tower in the adjacent sheet).

Locations

Examples of the first state are held by several public collections. listed the locations of known prints in 1964, and several more have come to light since then.Terisio Pignatti
"La pianta di Venezia di Jacopo de' Barbari"
''Bollettino dei musei civici veneziani'', IX, Venezia 1964, pp. 9-49

/ref> File:Francesco Rosselli - View of Florence with the Chain - WGA20082.jpg, View of Florence by

, 1480s File:Clevelandart 1949.565.jpg, View of Venice, first state, 1500,

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...

Bibliography

* *

Notes

References

{{commonscat, Images of Venice by Jacopo de' Barbari * British Museum *
Bird's eye view of Venice from the south
British Museum (first state) *
Bird's eye view of Venice from the south
British Museum (second state) *Museo Correr *
Ambito veneziano - Pianta prospettica della città di Venezia - Legno di pero inciso (Woodblocks)
Museo Correr *
Venezia (Ve) - Xilografia in sei blocchi su carta (print)
Museo Correr * Google Arts & Culture *
View_of_Venice_[upper_left_block
/nowiki>.html" ;"title="pper left block">View of Venice [upper left block
/nowiki>">pper left block">View of Venice [upper left block
/nowiki> at National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, Google Arts & Culture (second state) *
View of Venice
at Minneapolis Institute of Art, Google Arts & Culture (first state) *
Veduta prospettica di Venezia
Museo Correr, Google Arts & Culture (first state)
View of Venice, 1500
Minneapolis Institute of Art (first state)
View of Venice
Cleveland Museum of Art (first state)
Jacopo de Barbari Zugschrieben: Ansicht von Venedig (print)
Germanisches National Museum, Nuremberg (first state)
Vue de Venise à vol d'oiseau (print)
Bibliothèque nationale de France (first state)
Jacopo De Barbari, Pianta Prospettica di Venezia (Perspective Map of Venice)
Fondazione Querini Stampalia (first state)
Vedere dall'alto. La veduta di Venezia di Jacopo de' Barbari (1500)
Marciana Library (second state)
A Portrait of Venice: Jacopo de’Barbari’s View of 1500
Duke University
A Portrait of Venice: Jacopo de’ Barbari’s View of 1500
Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University
Mapping Venice 1500: Searching the de’ Barbari Map — Final Report
The Venice Atlas
"Renaissance man: why Jacopo de' Barbari is the artist of the moment"
''The Guardian'', 14 May 2000