De’ Barbari’s woodcut highlights the city’s commercial prosperity and military might. The more than five hundred vessels in the image represent the maritime trade that was the backbone of medieval Venice’s power. This vision of peace and prosperity contrasts starkly with the tumultuous political and economic events of the time. Between 1497 and 1500, Venetian merchants were alarmed to learn that the Portuguese had circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope, threatening Venice’s Mediterranean monopoly on the spice trade, and the Venetian economy was rocked by banking failures and changes in patrician galley patronage. While some have seen the View as a representation of a self-satisfied city at the peak of its prosperity, chapter 6 argues that it was a product of crisis. The print formed part of the propagandistic culture intended to disseminate ideas, showing that Venetian commercial strength would allow the city to persist in the face of adversity.
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