Cities Dominated by Lions: The Fifteenth-Century Venetian Mainland State Depicted by Inhabitants of the Subject Cities

Abstract

In the course of the long fifteenth century a large part of northeastern Italy came under Venetian rule. This article analyzes how this construction of the Venetian mainland state, the Terraferma, affected the ways in which its inhabitants depicted the territories involved. Focusing on a set of representations of mainland cities, it examines the ways in which these representations were constructed and the factors that influenced this. In general, two main tendencies can be distinguished: depictions of the subject territories as without links to Venice, or as territories whose identities have fundamentally changed by coming under Venetian rule. However, these two general tendencies could be brought about by a large variety of, often interconnecting, reasons. The article therefore emphasizes the existence of a multiplicity of ways in which the inhabitants of the mainland state defined the cities they were depicting, and of a multiplicity of factors influencing this.