Procession of the Doge to the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, with a View of Venice, ca. 1565

Procession of the Doge to the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, with a View of Venice, ca. 1565

Jost Amman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The woodcut depicts the doge in procession to the state barge (bucintoro) for the annual symbolic ceremony of Venice’s marriage with the sea. Whereas the vessel can be partly seen at right, the main subjects of the print are the setting and the elaborate procession. The carpets draped over the terrace and the turbaned figures mingling with the crowd—references to the Ottoman East—provide evidence of the city’s receptiveness to foreigners. Amman signed this work, indicating that he designed it, and the text below the image credits him with filling the piazza with a variety of figures. Yet Amman never traveled to Venice, and it is likely that the print is based on an earlier representation of the subject.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Procession of the Doge to the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, with a View of Venice, ca. 1565Procession of the Doge to the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, with a View of Venice, ca. 1565Procession of the Doge to the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, with a View of Venice, ca. 1565Procession of the Doge to the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, with a View of Venice, ca. 1565Procession of the Doge to the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, with a View of Venice, ca. 1565

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.