The exhibition project, curated by the historian Angela Munari and the historical geographer Massimo Rossi, compares, for the first time, two 'states' of the Venice MD, or two versions of the large woodcut of the view of Venice, one of the greatest masterpieces of urban cartography of all time.
The exhibition intends to offer an overall picture of the history of the perspective view Venetie MD by Jacopo de' Barbari where the visitor will have the opportunity to travel through the city, starting from the Rialto and the Marciana area, dwelling on some details relating to the life and activities of this fascinating city.
The visitor will find himself entering an "ordinary" Venetian day of the 1500s, participating not as a spectator but as a protagonist in the ferment of the city.
The perspective view Venetie MD by Jacopo de' Barbari it is a woodcut printed on six sheets of six pearwood dies and measures approximately 134,5 x 282 cm. The matrices are kept in the Correr Museum in Venice.
The work was commissioned by Anton Kolbe and required 3 years of work by cartographers and engravers.
The view, in addition to being an artistic and cartographic masterpiece of the Renaissance, turns out to be a unique and unrepeatable visual and historical document for the urban planning and building knowledge of the city in a specific year, 1500.
It stands out there typical fish-shaped shape of the old town, the islands, the lands, the vegetable gardens, the gardens, the campi and campielli, the calli, the canals, the bridges, the buildings, the warehouses, the shops, even those on the water, the hospitali, the churches and the bell towers are drawn , the convents, the oratories, the scolette, the squeri and the monuments.
The buildings are rendered with a wealth of detail: towers, merlons, chimney pots, loggias and roof terraces (liagò and diagò), cavane, walls, palisades, wells, cisterns and sub-porticoes. People in the act of working, going by boat, fishermen who make the city come alive. also ships, boats and burchi, or transport boats. In addition to the city and lagoon landscape, the mainland is also described, albeit briefly, with the towers of Marghera and Mestre and the beginning of the foothills.
The view is enriched by peripheral figurative elements: in the upper part Mercury with the caduceus supported by a cloud bearing the inscription “MERCVRIVS PRECETERIS HVIC FAVSTE EMPORIIS ILLVSTRO”; below the inscription “VENETIE” and the indication of the year “MD”. Eight heads, intent on blowing, personify the different winds. Overlooking the basin of San Marco is an imposing Neptune, characterized by the trident, riding a dolphin.
On display are exhibited a first state belonging to Querini Stampalia Foundation and a third state of the collection Intesa Sanpaolo, composed respectively of six sheets and twelve smaller sheets.
In first state – October 1500 (Mazzariol-Pignatti 1963, Schulz 1990, Romanelli 1999) – the top of the bell tower is formed by a lowered roof which covers a terrace-loggia; this appearance is what the bell tower must have had after lightning struck it and seriously damaged it in August 1489.
Il second state – published around 1514 – shows the bell tower after the reconstruction of the top was carried out, reconstruction which was completed in 1514; the cusp has the well-known pyramidal shape, at the top of which (but located on the adjacent sheet) the statue of the angel is visible.
Il third state – ascribed to the second half of the 1514th century by Schulz – brings the bell tower back to the aspect it had before the reconstruction of XNUMX. This was due to the fact that updating the view was difficult to achieve, due to the extensive and important changes planning and architectural interventions intervened in the meantime; an attempt was therefore made to restore the work to its original state, also reinserting the block with the inscription “VENETIE MD” which had been removed when the second state was published. The improper restitution however, it was carried out without the necessary accuracy, so much so that the figure of the angel located on top of the bell tower remained on the upper adjacent sheet. This third edition of the work was conducted with the explicit intention of "historicizing" the image of the city, of bringing it back to the ideal model that it represented - and at the same time established - at the beginning of the century.
The exhibition, sponsored by the Municipality of Vicenza, is organized in collaboration with the Querini Stampalia Foundation of Venice and is included in the program of the celebrations of the 1600 years of Venice.
