Renaissance Gallery

Annunciation (tempera on panel), 1489

XAL227150 Annunciation (tempera on panel), 1489 by Botticelli, Sandro (Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi) (1444/5-1510); 150x156 cm; Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy; (add.info.: The picture was commissioned in May of 1489 to decorate the chapel of the Florentine monastery Cestello, which is now known as Santa Maria Maddalena de'Pazzi); Italian, out of copyright

© Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Tuscany, Italy / Bridgeman Images

Month of January: snowy landscape with aristocrats and hunters. c.1535 (fresco)

LRI4684865 Month of January: snowy landscape with aristocrats and hunters. c.1535 (fresco) by Maestro Venceslao (fl.1390-1400); Castello del Buonconsilio, Torre dell'Aquila, Italy; (add.info.: Month of January: snowy landscape with aristocrats and hunters. Aristocrats play snowballs while hunters go hunting with their dogs. At the bottom the Castello di Stenico castle and a man with the key is ready to open the fortress door. Painting by the Master of the Months or Master Wenceslas (Maestro dei Mesi or Maestro Wenceslao in Italian, beginning of the 15th century) restores by Marcello Fogolino around 1535. Fresco. Trento, Sala del Buonconsiglio, Torre del Aquila (Italy, Trento, Hall of the Good Council, Tower of the Aquila)); Luisa Ricciarini; out of copyright

© Luisa Ricciarini / Bridgeman Images

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