A View of Venice

Description

Jacopo 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 with 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 residents. Featuring methodological advancements in the digital humanities, A View of Venice highlights the reality and myths of a topographically unique, mystical city and its place in the world.
Contributors. Karen-edis Barzman, Andrea Bellieni, Patricia Fortini Brown, Valeria Cafà, Stanley Chojnacki, Tracy E. Cooper, Giada Damen, Julia A. DeLancey, Piero Falchetta, Ludovica Galeazzo, Maartje van Gelder, Jonathan Glixon, Richard Goy, Kristin Love Huffman, Holly Hurlburt, Claire Judde de Larivière, Blake de Maria, Martina Massaro, Cosimo Monteleone, Monique O’Connell, Mary Pardo, Giorgio Tagliaferro, Saundra Weddle, Bronwen Wilson, Rangsook Yoon The contributors to A View of Venice draw on a high-resolution digital scan of Jacopo de’ Barbari’s woodcut View of Venice printed in the year 1500 to outline the ways it depicts the social, cultural, economic, and political realities of everyday Venetian life. Kristin Love Huffman is an independent scholar of the art, architectural, and urban history of Renaissance Venice and coeditor of Visualizing Venice: Mapping and Modeling Time and Change in a City. List 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. “Venice 1500” 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 Cojnacki  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  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
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