id: 127250 accession number: 1949.565 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1949.565 updated: 2021-10-12 09:00:13.604000 View of Venice, 1500. Published by Anton Kolb (German, 1474-1566), Jacopo de' Barbari (Italian, 1440/50-before 1515). Woodcut from six blocks on six sheets of paper; overall: 132.7 x 277.5 cm (52 1/4 x 109 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1949.565 title: View of Venice title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1500 creation date earliest: 1500 creation date latest: 1500 current location: creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: Italy, early 16th Century technique: woodcut from six blocks on six sheets of paper department: Prints collection: PR - Woodcut type: Print find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Anton Kolb (German, 1474-1566) - publisher German merchant and print publisher, active 1500-1536 in Italy * Jacopo de' Barbari (Italian, 1440/50-before 1515) - artist --- measurements: Overall: 132.7 x 277.5 cm (52 1/4 x 109 1/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: 35th Anniversary Exhibition opening date: 1951-06-20T04:00:00 35th Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-September 30, 1951). title: Against the Grain: Woodcuts from the Collection opening date: 2003-08-17T00:00:00 Against the Grain: Woodcuts from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 17-November 9, 2003). title: Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting opening date: 2006-06-18T00:00:00 Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (organizer) (June 18-September 17, 2006). title: Grand Scale: Oversize and Composite Prints from the Age of Titian and Dürer opening date: 2008-03-19T00:00:00 Grand Scale: Oversize and Composite Prints from the Age of Titian and Dürer. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (January 31-April 26, 2009). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Prince of Liechtenstein, Vienna date: ?-?1947 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1949- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Before the conveniences of airplanes, photography, or even a hot air balloon this monumental bird's-eye view map of Venice made in 1500 documents every building, canal, alleyway, and square in the city. digital description: By the end of the 1400s, Venice had emerged as the major printing center in Europe, where books were printed in various languages to be shipped around the world. The city also became the great emporium for prints, and the woodcut developed beyond its humble origins as a popular art for devotional imagery, playing cards, and later for book illustration. View of Venice epitomizes this new ambitious scope for the woodcut, and is a landmark in the history of printmaking. This monumental print can be compared in scale only to a mural decoration and presumably served as a less expensive surrogate for paintings. The six sheets that make up the design would have been pasted either onto a canvas or the wall itself, resulting in the survival of only 12 impressions of the original edition like this one, and only three in America. The goal of the print was to depict Venice as seen from above. No single vantage point would have been sufficient, so Jacopo de' Barbari and a team of surveyors climbed various towers and tall buildings to record small sections of the city. These individual views were combined to form the map which follows a single, though inconsistent, system of perspective. Unprecedented for its exactness of detail and difficulty of execution, View of Venice represents the first attempt to render the image of a city according to the laws of geometry. The view also highlights the seafaring trade activities of Venice, depicting Mercury, god of commerce, presiding over the city, while Neptune, god of the seas, keeps watch over the entrance to the city's Grand Canal. wall description: By the end of the 15th century, Venice had emerged as the major printing center in Europe, where books were printed in various languages to be shipped around the world. The city also became the great emporium for prints, and the woodcut developed beyond its humble origins as a popular art for simple pious imagery, playing cards, and later for book illustration. View of Venice epitomizes this new ambitious scope for the woodcut. This monumental print can be compared in scale only to a mural decoration and presumably served as a less expensive surrogate for paintings. The six sheets that make up the design would have been pasted either onto a canvas or the wall itself, resulting in the survival of few fine impressions like this one. The goal of the print was to depict Venice as seen from above. No single vantage point would have been sufficient, so a large team of surveyors climbed various towers and tall buildings to record small sections of the city. These individual views were combined to form the map which follows a single, though inconsistent, system of perspective. Unprecedented for its exactness of detail and difficulty of execution, View of Venice represents the first attempt to render the image of a city according to the laws of geometry. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 628, 629 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n117 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 90 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n114 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 90 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n114 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 103 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n123 --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1949.565/1949.565_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1949.565/1949.565_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1949.565/1949.565_full.tif