Jacopo de' Barbari

• 1. Venetian Origins And Early Life

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  No one knows the exact year Jacopo de' Barbari was born, but contemporaries described him as a Venetian. Albrecht Dürer called him "van Venedig geporn," meaning born in Venice. Some researchers suggest dates between 1450 and 1470 because he appeared old and weak by 1511. If he were born around 1450, he would have achieved sudden prominence at nearly fifty years of age. A later birth date seems more likely for such an early career peak. He signed most engravings with a caduceus, the sign of Mercury. The Munich Still-Life with Partridge and Gauntlets bears his name below a painted piece of paper reading "Jac.o de barbarj p 1504." Nothing is known about his first decades, though Alvise Vivarini has been suggested as his master. He left Venice for Germany in 1500, and thereafter is better documented.

• 2. The Map Of Venice Woodcut

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  His huge woodcut aerial view Map of Venice measured 1.345 meters high and 2.818 meters wide from six blocks. A privilege granted to its publisher in 1500 recorded that the work had taken three years to complete. This clearly drew on the work of many surveyors but was a spectacular feat nonetheless. It caused a considerable stir from the first state printed at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Later updates reflected major new building projects in a second state of the print. Apart from this map, he produced two other woodcuts of men and satyrs. These were the largest and most impressive figurative woodcuts yet produced. They established the Italian tradition of fine, large woodcuts for the following decades. The Triumph of Men Over Satyrs completed in the early 16th century highlights various themes related to mythology. Multiple scholars have suggested connections with another woodcut titled Battle Between Satyrs and Men.

• 3. Northern European Court Patronage

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  He worked for Emperor Maximilian I in Nuremberg for one year before moving elsewhere. In 1503, 5 he served Frederick the Wise of Saxony in various places. He then moved to the court of Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg for about the years 1506, 8. In Germany, he was often known as Jacop Walch, probably from Wälsch meaning foreigner. This term was especially used for Italians. He may have returned to Venice with Philip the Handsome of Burgundy. By March 1510 he was working for Philip's successor Archduchess Margaret in Brussels and Mechelen. In January 1511 he fell ill and made a will. In March, the Archduchess gave him a pension for life on account of his age and weakness. By 1516, he had died leaving the Archduchess in possession of twenty-three engraving plates. Since many plates were probably engraved on both sides, some engravings may not have survived.

• 4. Dialogue With Albrecht Dürer

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  De' Barbari spent a year in Nuremberg where Dürer lived during 1500, 1. Influences flowed in both directions between them for a number of years. They discussed human proportion, not obviously one of de' Barbari's strengths. Dürer was evidently fascinated by what he had to say though he recorded that de' Barberi had not told him everything he knew. Twenty years later, Dürer tried unsuccessfully to get the Archduchess Margaret to give him a manuscript book she had on the subject. The book has not survived since de' Barberi was then dead. None of his engravings are dated so much of the dating depends on resemblances to dated prints by Dürer. Five of his engravings were in an album of Hartmann Schedel's bound up in December 1504. This gives further evidence as to the dating of his work.

• 5. Evolution Of Engraving Style

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  His style is related to possible master Alvise Vivarini and to Giovanni Bellini but has a languorous quality all its own. Apart from Dürer, the influence of Mantegna's technique appears in earlier engravings done around the turn of the century with parallel hatching. His engravings are mostly small showing just a few figures. Truculent satyrs feature in several prints along with mythological subjects including two Sacrifices to Priapus. Earlier prints show figures with small heads and somewhat shapeless bodies with sloping shoulders and thick torsos supported by slender legs. Probably from a middle period come several nudes like Apollo and Diana and St Sebastian. In these works his ability to organize the whole composition has greatly improved. A final group shows more Italianate styles with complex compositions. These have an enigmatic haunting atmosphere and very refined technique. Levenson proposed they date from his period in the Netherlands influenced by young Lucas van Leyden.

• 6. Innovations In Still-Life Painting

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  The very early still-life of a Still-Life with Partridge and Gauntlets resides in the Alte Pinakothek Munich. It is often called the first small scale trompe-l'œil painting since antiquity. He painted a live Sparrowhawk which is probably a fragment of a larger work at the National Gallery London. The disputed but famous Portrait of Fra Luca Pacioli sits in the Museo di Capodimonte Naples. This shows the Franciscan mathematician demonstrating geometry at a table on which lie his own Summa and a work by Euclid. A dodecahedron model rests on the table while a rhombicuboctahedron half-filled with water hangs suspended from the ceiling. Jacopo de' Barbari is attributed a Christ Blessing displayed at the Snite Museum of Art in Notre Dame University Indiana. His paintings are mostly portraits or half-length groups of religious figures.