Dr. Huffman will present plans for a new installation at the Correr Museum on October 9th. Registration is requested.

Jacopo de’ Barbari’s View made visible the mythical identity of Venice. Published more than 500 years ago, the woodblock print presented an astonishingly detailed portrait of the city from a bird’s eye view.  An artistic and technical marvel, it was immediately recognized for its inventions in composition, scale, and precision. At the time of the View’s production in 1500, Venice was one of the wealthiest and most powerful states in the Early Modern world. A city whose curved urban form seemingly floated on water, it was experienced, lived, and navigated unlike any in the world. Over 300 bridges connected a mosaic of islands, each intersected by canals. Lining them, palatial architecture announced boundless wealth and foreign associations. Scattered throughout the city and surrounding islands, churches declared extreme piety, even if residents enjoyed extensive liberties. The architecture at Piazza San Marco and Rialto, principal sites of governance and commerce, promoted a distinctive civic identity. Visual evidence of Venice’s urban sophistication and splendor was recorded for all to admire in this singular work of art.

The future installation at the Correr Museum will bring the View’s magnificent details to life. The print and the original wooden blocks used to publish the six large-scale sheets, form the centerpiece for interactive multi-media displays. The digital stories, alongside select pieces from the collection, will recount the city’s historic and artistic significance and present a state of the art museum experience, a portal to entering the world of sixteenth-century Venice.