Thematic Guidance “From Veduta to a Postcard” Through the Exhibition “Cities: A Certain View”

Thematic guidance “From Veduta to a Postcard” through the exhibition “Cities: A Certain View. From the Collection of Graphics by Foreign Authors of the National Museum of Serbia” will be organized on Friday, September 20th, 2024, at 6 p.m., as well as on Saturday, September 21st, 2024, at 12 p.m. Art historian Jelena Marković will guide you through the exhibition.

Veduta in painting or graphics represents detailed and realistic depictions of cities, landscapes and architectural scenes. This genre developed in the 17th century in Italy, and later spread to other European countries such as the Netherlands, in response to the growing need for depictions of the urban landscape with documentary and educational purposes. The production of veduta relied on the needs of travellers, merchants and collectors, who wanted memories of visits to famous European metropolises. With the advent of postcards in the late 19th century, these precise depictions of urban landscapes were slowly replaced by a new medium that was faster, more accessible, and widely distributed. Although they have lost the artistic complexity of veduta, postcards have kept their essence — the representation of cities.

In this guide, you can find out how technology and the development of printing influenced the visual representation of the urban landscape, how the view of the city changed over time, what cultural and social values that view reflected, and what the “journey” looked like from the view to the postcard.