Procession of the Doge to the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, with a View of Venice, ca. 1565
Medium
Woodcut; third state
Dimensions
image: 29 3/4 x 73 1/2 in. (75.6 x 186.7 cm) sheet: 42 1/2 x 74 3/4 in. (108 x 189.9 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
Accession Number
49.95.5
Tags
Art Historical Context
This striking woodcut depicts the annual Ascension Day procession of the Doge of Venice aboard the Bucintoro, the ornate ceremonial barge used in the famed “Marriage of the Sea” ritual. The scene unfolds across a panoramic view of the city, with gondolas, galleys, and spectators crowding the lagoon as the Doge symbolically casts a ring into the Adriatic to affirm Venice’s maritime dominion. Though the composition dates to around 1565, this third-state impression was printed in 1697, preserving the spectacle for viewers long after the Republic’s golden age. The work’s impressive scale—nearly s...
About the Artist
Jost Amman|Giovanni Andrea Vavassore|Johann Valentin Schallern · 1539–1591
Jost Amman (1539–1591) was a Swiss-born woodcut designer, engraver, and illustrator who became one of the most prolific and influential graphic artists of sixteenth-century Germany, producing an output of extraordinary range and technical virtuosity that shaped the visual culture of the later Reformation era. Born in Zurich, Amman moved to Nuremberg around 1560, the city that had been the center o...