Jacopo de' Barbari's View of Venice: Map Making, City Views, and Moralized Geography before the Year 1500

Abstract

Among the hundreds of city views printed in the sixteenth century—bird's-eye views, flat plans, profile views, woodcuts, engravings, and etchings—the anonymous woodcut view of Venice of 1500 stands out for its great size, wealth of detail, and sheer beauty of design and execution.1 It consists of six large sheets, each approximately 66 by 99cm, which together compose a bird's-eye view of the city from the southwest, measuring fully 135 by 282cm (Fig. 1). We distinguish the characteristic fish-like outline of the metropolis, the distant islands of Murano, Torcello, Burano, and Mazzorbo, and the far-off Alps. Within the city we recognize scores of churches, public buildings, and private palaces that are still standing, little changed in their appearance. The perfection of the work is such that one might think it was the product of a long-established, accomplished tradition of printed city views. It is not. It is one of the first large bird's-eye views known to have been published in woodcut, and perhaps the...