Exhibition alert: You still have time to visit Paper Cities, March 9–June 23, 2024 at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Each of its prints and photographs is worth a good look, and the museum has thoughtfully provided magnifying glasses so that you can view details closely. I was captivated, for instance, by the town Dürer has depicted at the feet of an allegorical figure. Miniature on the page, but full of exquisite details to supply the imagination.
I failed to jot down which town is pictured, but that doesn't matter for an imaginary setting. What I find fascinating are the roads, bridges, and stacks of lumber, which imply a high degree of movement and commerce. The stone retaining wall on the left points to development in the countryside. The fortified castle at the top of the hill on the right and the monastery below it lay out levels of power. The riverside cluster of buildings including a church at the bottom of the hill provide a center of ordinary local life. Easy to visualize action in such a setting.
This image in the Public Domain via Wikipedia Commons—and you can see all this even better at the Met Museum's zoomable version.
