Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals:

Map of Venice from 1729

Washington, DC—The Ahmanson Foundation has enabled the Gallery to acquire one of the greatest printed maps of cities in terms of art and of science: a first edition of Iconografica Rappresentatione della Inclita Città di Venezia (Iconongraphic Representation of the Illustrious City of Venice) (Venice, Giuseppe Baroni, 1729). This map combined the talents of the leading Venetian figure painter in the decade, Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734), and the leading Venetian printmaker in the 1720s and early 1730s, Giovanni Antonio Faldoni (c. 1690–c. 1770). Francesco Zucchi (1692–1764) contributed the views (mostly after Luca Carlevarijs). Using groundbreaking surveying tools and mathematics of the day, Lodovico Ughi (active 1710–1730) prepared precise measurements of buildings, streets, canals, and gardens, making this map authoritative for more than a century.