Veneto Gallery

Burano in Venice

The unbelievably colourful Burano, one of the islands in the Venice lagoon, where every house is painted a bright shade of blue, yellow, pink, purple. Put this with the washing flapping in the breeze, the window boxes of red geraniums, and the painted saints in their wall niches and you feel like you're at a permanent festival

© 2011 Kelly Cheng

Colorful buildings at Burano Island, Venice lagoon, Venice, UNESCO World Heritage Site

Colorful buildings at Burano Island, Venice lagoon, Venice, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Veneto, Italy, Europe

© Carlo Morucchio

Architecture, Building Exterior, Burano, Color Image, Europe, Exteriors, Horizontal, House, Houses, Island, Islands, Italy, Outdoors, Painted, Photography, Travel Destination, Veneto, Venice, Vibrant Colors, Vibrant Colours, World Heritage Site

View of Venice, 1500 (woodcut)

3557439 View of Venice, 1500 (woodcut) by Barbari, Jacopo de (1440/50-a.1515); 132.72x277.5 cm; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN, USA; (add.info.: Published by Anton Kolb
Woodcut from six blocks on six sheets of paper
Long before the advent of balloons and other aircraft, Jacopo de Barbari created a bird's-eye view of Venice through the power of his intellect and imagination. The mural-size print was unprecedented in scale when it was published in the year 1500. Every building, canal, and open square is documented here. One imagines Barbari and his assistants climbing up the city's 103 bell towers in order to survey the dense urban landscape. The View of Venice also features the maritime activities that made the city an international center of trade. Mercury, the god of commerce, presides over the city, while watchful Neptune, god of the seas, rides his dolphin through the harbor.
The incredible advance in the presentation and dissemination of information makes this the Google Earth of its day. The View is a landmark in the history of printmaking. It was printed in sections from six carved wooden blocks. Each part is so big that the individual sheets of paper were the largest ever produced in Europe at that time. When published, the View was very expensive, and most examples were probably displayed on walls. The result is that only a dozen of the original edition are known to survive. Mia's example, acquired in 2010, was the first to change hands in 55 years; it is one of just three in America and is in unusually good condition.); A© Minneapolis Institute of Art; The John R. Van Derlip Fund; Italian, out of copyright

© © Minneapolis Institute of Art The John R. Van Derlip Fund / Bridgeman Images