Page 255 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

ing the attention of noble patrons before 1500, ments simply refer to the fact that Venice had viewing the solid forms of buildings at an angle
both as painted decorations for palaces and as col- been "portrayed" or "printed." Perhaps it might from the south and from a considerable distance
lector's items. The relatively high cost of Jacopo's best be called a "Portrait of Venice." and height. The foreshortening is broadly consis-
map indicates that it was aimed at such a market, "Bird's-eye" views of cities had been published tent with the way the puffing heads of the winds
appealing to those who had political and intellec- before Jacopo's. The Florentine graphic artist and are disposed around an imaginary ellipse, as if
tual reasons for being interested in other terri- printseller, Francesco Rosselli, appears to have they are situated on a foreshortened equator
tories and to those for whom maps, then as now, played a pioneering role with multiblock prints of whose poles are marked by Mercury and Neptune.
provided a form of vicarious travel. In a sense, the Florence, Rome, and Pisa in the 14805 and 14905. However, as Schulz has shown in his fundamental
word "map" is misleading, since Jacopo's six large However, what evidence survives of Rosselli's analysis of the print, the perspectival rendering is
sheets were hardly designed to assist the visitor views suggests that they fell far short of the not consistent either overall or in its individual
in finding his or her way around the maze of detail, coherence, and grandeur of Jacopo's. The parts. Although there is a general tendency for
Venice's streets and canals. However, the anachro- basic principle observed in the design of his map the plan to be more compressed toward the top,
nistic and popular title of the print, "bird's-eye is that the ground plan of the city has been tilted as it should be, there are also severe compressions
view," is by no means preferable. The early docu- into space in such a way that we appear to be on either side of the central join at the left. Some

254 CIRCA 1492