View of Venice

View of Venice, first state, 1500, Minneapolis Institute of Art

View of Venice, also known as the de' Barbari Map, is a monumental woodcut print showing a bird's-eye view of the city of Venice 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, and then published in late 1500 by the Nuremberg publisher Anton Kolb on six large sheets of paper, each measuring about 66 cm × 99 cm (26 in × 39 in), to create a composite image measuring approximately 135 cm × 280 cm (53 in × 110 in).[1] The individual sheets of paper were the largest produced in Europe up to that time.[2][3]

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.[3] Examples of the three states of the print are held by public collections.[4] 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 in Venice.

Detail of the Piazza San Marco and surrounding area, from the first state of the print, at the Minneapolis Institute of Art

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 from the 1480s. It may be the earliest surviving comprehensive view of Venice: earlier views by Leon Battista Alberti and Jacopo Bellini are believed to be lost.[5] The British Library quotes an article by art historian Martin Kemp in 1991 in which he says it is "an achievement of astonishing visual and intellectual control".[6]

  1. ^ Schulz 1978, p. 425.
  2. ^ THE JOHN R. VAN DERLIP FUND (2010). "View of Venice, 1500". Mia. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  3. ^ a b Howard 1997, p. 103.
  4. ^ Terisio Pignatti: "La pianta di Venezia di Jacopo de' Barbari", Bollettino dei musei civici veneziani, IX, Venezia 1964, pp. 9-49;Stati della stampa online
  5. ^ "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
  6. ^ Martin Kemp, Levenson ed.: 1991, p. 255, at "View of Venice in 1500", British Library