Jessica Maier
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226127637
- eISBN:
- 9780226127774
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226127774.001.0001
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cartography
This book recounts the history of a genre, the city portrait, through imagery of Rome. Among the most popular categories of early modern print culture, the city portrait was also one of the most ...
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This book recounts the history of a genre, the city portrait, through imagery of Rome. Among the most popular categories of early modern print culture, the city portrait was also one of the most varied, encompassing maps, bird’s-eye views, and other forms of urban representation. Through an exploration of seminal works dating from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, this book interweaves the story of this genre with that of Rome itself, addressing the key figures and specific contexts that shaped each image. Scholars, artists, architects, and engineers who shared a fascination with Rome’s ruins were spurred to develop new graphic modes for depicting the city. The resulting maps delicately balanced measured and pictorial forms of representation, past and present, realism and idealism. Portraits of Rome became canvases for documenting the rapid-fire urban changes initiated by a series of Renaissance and Baroque popes, for projecting ideas about the city’s current and future state, and for romanticizing, aggrandizing, or marginalizing its tangible signs of antiquity—or, for that matter, modernity.Less
This book recounts the history of a genre, the city portrait, through imagery of Rome. Among the most popular categories of early modern print culture, the city portrait was also one of the most varied, encompassing maps, bird’s-eye views, and other forms of urban representation. Through an exploration of seminal works dating from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, this book interweaves the story of this genre with that of Rome itself, addressing the key figures and specific contexts that shaped each image. Scholars, artists, architects, and engineers who shared a fascination with Rome’s ruins were spurred to develop new graphic modes for depicting the city. The resulting maps delicately balanced measured and pictorial forms of representation, past and present, realism and idealism. Portraits of Rome became canvases for documenting the rapid-fire urban changes initiated by a series of Renaissance and Baroque popes, for projecting ideas about the city’s current and future state, and for romanticizing, aggrandizing, or marginalizing its tangible signs of antiquity—or, for that matter, modernity.
Graham R. Martin
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199694532
- eISBN:
- 9780191839979
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199694532.003.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Ornithology, Animal Biology
From views taken at high altitudes, to the videos recorded by cameras mounted on a flying eagle, so-called birds’ eye views are commonplace. But are they really what a bird sees? What really is a ...
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From views taken at high altitudes, to the videos recorded by cameras mounted on a flying eagle, so-called birds’ eye views are commonplace. But are they really what a bird sees? What really is a bird’s world? The Greek philosopher Epicurus argued that each animal experiences a different world, leading him to question the basis of human reality; in turn this led to Scepticism and the scientific method. Modern techniques of sensory ecology applied to birds show how correct Epicurus was. Sensory information in birds is uniquely and finely tuned to the ecology and behaviours of each species. Different sensory information is tradedoff, and specific knowledge of places and situations are necessary to cope with natural conditions when environmental information is sparse or lacking. The worlds in which birds live are as diverse as their species and are essential to their description and to our understanding of their behaviours.Less
From views taken at high altitudes, to the videos recorded by cameras mounted on a flying eagle, so-called birds’ eye views are commonplace. But are they really what a bird sees? What really is a bird’s world? The Greek philosopher Epicurus argued that each animal experiences a different world, leading him to question the basis of human reality; in turn this led to Scepticism and the scientific method. Modern techniques of sensory ecology applied to birds show how correct Epicurus was. Sensory information in birds is uniquely and finely tuned to the ecology and behaviours of each species. Different sensory information is tradedoff, and specific knowledge of places and situations are necessary to cope with natural conditions when environmental information is sparse or lacking. The worlds in which birds live are as diverse as their species and are essential to their description and to our understanding of their behaviours.
