Page 256 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

passages of groups of buildings, most notably with a modern map show that his tilted projection ground level. The area around Saint Mark's
those around the tiled area of Saint Mark's is markedly inconsistent throughout. There are Square, for example, appears to have been taken
Square, are depicted in reasonably coherent per- two possible explanations: either he set the main largely from the tower of San Giorgio Maggiore
spective in themselves but are not coordinated outlines of the city into space by eye without pre- in the middle of the foreground. Despite its
with the perspective of the whole city, while other cise calculation, or he systematically foreshort- inconsistencies if analyzed in the light of informa-
buildings have been set down by eye without ened a plan that was not accurately proportioned tion and techniques available to us today, the
much concern for measured recession. There is a throughout. In view of the extreme difficulty in View remains an achievement of astonishing vi-
tendency to exaggerate the height of those ver- foreshortening such an irregular shape by eye, the sual and intellectual control, demanding incredible
tical features that provide suitable landmarks in latter alternative seems more likely. On the basis patience and a notable ability to visualize forms
various regions of the city. of the foreshortened outline, however it was from inaccessible viewpoints. Its size and dramat-
The procedure followed in compiling the map is achieved, he then would have laboriously drawn ically open horizons also give it a sense of gran-
likely to have involved a complex compound of in details of the buildings, squares, canals, bridges, deur—as a magnificent slice of the vast surface of
techniques. Jacopo must have made or had access etc., using studies taken from high vantage points the world —in a way provided by no equivalent
to a reasonably accurate flat plan, but comparison and from less readily adaptable locations at view in the Renaissance. M.K.

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