This beautiful color woodcut is an illustration from The Nuremberg Chronicle, a monumental and beautifully illustrated book of world history by Hartmann Schedel in Nuremberg in 1493. This painting depicts four cities: Bologna, Byzantium, Istanbul (Constantinople) and Trier. Each city is presented in fairly detailed illustrations, allowing the viewer to plunge into bygone times and imagine themselves on the streets of these cities. Hartmann Schedel used the technique of color woodcut to create this painting. He masterfully captured the architectural details and features of each city, reproducing them with great precision and attention to detail. This painting is rightfully considered one of the artist’s most important works and is a valuable historical example of the depiction of urban life and architecture in the past.
Hartmann Schedel (1440 - 1514) is a German humanist scientist, physician, historian and chronicler. Author of the first published world chronicle. One of the first cartographers to use machine printing. Schedel was also a notable collector of books, art and old master prints. An album he had bound in 1504, which once contained five engravings by Jacopo de' Barbari, provides important evidence for dating de' Barbari's work.
The reverse side has text. This is an original print, with original handcoloring.