Venetian Galleasses Seen from Stern and Side

The artwork

On the right, on the galleass seen from the side, guns stick out from the bow and from the sides too, above the oars, where an ordinary galley carried none. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The galleasses of Lepanto from the stern and from the side, with the Lion of Saint Mark.
• In a study or a hallway, hulls and oars give rhythm to the wall.
• A gift for anyone who loves Venice or goes to sea.

The first galleasses left the Venetian Arsenal around 1550: great merchant galleys turned into warships, wider and higher than ordinary galleys, with thirty to fifty pieces of artillery. On 7 October 1571, at Lepanto, Venice brought six of them to the Holy League fleet, under the provveditore Francesco Duodo. They were so heavy that, with the wind against them, they had to be towed out ahead of the Christian line, and two did not arrive in time. The other four, once the Ottoman galleys were within range, opened fire at close quarters and broke the force of their attack; with their high sides, boarding them was almost impossible.

The engraving is by Vincenzo Coronelli, Franciscan friar and cosmographer of the Republic of Venice, who closed the first volume of his Atlante Veneto with some fifteen plates of ships from all over the world. This one, “Galeazze vedute per poppa, e per fianco”, is dedicated in the cartouche to Angelo Emo, Venetian patrician and “Governor of a Galleass for the Most Serene Republic”; top left is the lion of Saint Mark with its book. The copy reproduced here, dated 1693, belongs to the David Rumsey Map Collection.

Anyone who loves Venice or goes to sea will want it in a study or above the chest in the hallway, and it is a gift for those who first met the battle of Lepanto in their school books. On the right, meanwhile, the galleass keeps its guns pointed straight ahead.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
With frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass