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Lot Essay
This unconventional and apparently unrecorded bird's eye view of Venice, here tentatively attributed to the Venetian publisher and map-maker Ferrando Bertelli, certainly owes a debt to Jacopo de' Barbari's famous, monumental woodcut view of 1500. However, unlike its great predecessor, the present small etching does not appear to be the work of a meticolous cartographer, but a rather whimsical, vernacular rendition of the city and its surroundings: the islands and areas of the Venetian Lagoon, their names are written in Venetian dialect, are depicted in a semi-circular arrangement, without any regard for the true distances and topography of the place. If Bertelli was indeed the publisher of this map, he would have probably employed a printmaker to produce the plate. Whoever this might have been, the present etching appears to be one of the earliest attempts in the technique for the artist: the print shows much foul-biting and other accidental marks to the plate a more experienced craftsman would have known to avoid.
Apart from the prominent initials F. B. - presumably relating to Bertelli - another set of initials are hidden within the cityscape: on a small campiello in the sestiere of Canareggio at centre left we find the small letters L. P., adding another mystery to this curious little map.
We have not been able to trace another impression of this map. Presumably - like most popular prints for quotidian use - it was printed and sold in considerable numbers, but not kept and cared for, but discarded when it became too worn or had served its purpose. The present impression is thus a great rarity and a reminder that, as Antony Griffiths has pointed out, that the vast majority of prints ever produced have not survived and are not known today.
We are grateful to Catherine Jenkins, London, and Mark McDonald, Metropolitan Museum, New York, for their thoughts on dating and attributing this print.
Apart from the prominent initials F. B. - presumably relating to Bertelli - another set of initials are hidden within the cityscape: on a small campiello in the sestiere of Canareggio at centre left we find the small letters L. P., adding another mystery to this curious little map.
We have not been able to trace another impression of this map. Presumably - like most popular prints for quotidian use - it was printed and sold in considerable numbers, but not kept and cared for, but discarded when it became too worn or had served its purpose. The present impression is thus a great rarity and a reminder that, as Antony Griffiths has pointed out, that the vast majority of prints ever produced have not survived and are not known today.
We are grateful to Catherine Jenkins, London, and Mark McDonald, Metropolitan Museum, New York, for their thoughts on dating and attributing this print.