Friedrich Bernhard Werner’s “La famosa e meritevole città di Firenze”

Almost a decade before Giuseppe Zocchi’s marvellous views of Florence appeared in print, the city was memorably captured in a series of vedute titled La famosa e meritevole città di Firenze, cioè i più considerabili prospetti delle Chiese, Residenze, Pallazzi, Piazze e Ville (Augsburg, Merz, 1735) by Friedrich Bernhard Werner (or Bedřich Bernard Werner, 1690-1776)—a rare series we present here in a dazzling copy with contemporary hand-colouring.

Friedrich Bernhard Werner (1690-1776), La famosa e meritevole città di Firenze, cioè i più considerabili prospetti delle Chiese, Residenze, Pallazzi, Piazze e Ville, Augsburg, J. Georg Merz, 1735. Price available upon request.

This collection of engravings, which is introduced by a general perspectival view that acts as a title page, consists of 31 (of 32) lively views of Florence highlighting its streets, squares, buildings, gardens, etc., all animated by people going about their daily lives, while in the lower margin of each plate the viewer is introduced to the subject with an engraved legend in both Italian and German.

Friedrich Bernhard Werner, La veduta tra il ponte alla Caraja e di S.S. Trinita sopra Arno di rimpetto del Sig.re Marchese Corsini in Firenze, from La famosa e meritevole città di Firenze, Augsburg, Merz, 1735.

As discussed in recent posts, the genre of vedute (which translates simply to “views”) refers to detailed or realistic scenes of focal points in major cities, rendered from close or medium range, which became popular in tandem with the Grand Tour: as wealthy travellers journeyed to the premier cultural sites of Europe, vedute offered a way to unite art, knowledge, and prestige in the form of lavish souvenirs.

Friedrich Bernhard Werner, La veduta della parte avanti del duomo con S. Giouanni in Firenze, from La famosa e meritevole città di Firenze, Augsburg, Merz, 1735.

The popularity of the genre also highlights the importance of urban spaces at this time. As Stuart Blumin notes, vedute elevated the city from background to subject matter in its own right (S. Blumin, “The Encompassing City: Vedutismo in Early Modern Art and Culture,” p. 241). Further, while our past posts on the topic focused either specifically on Zocchi’s calcio scene or Piranesi’s renderings of Rome more broadly, a key aspect of the genre is its seriality, for vedute offered a novel way to bring the viewer “into” the modern city: “one scene following another, the whole constituting a series of views and viewpoints conveying, in sharp contrast to the traditional ‘distant city’ of real or imagined towers clustered behind a real or emblematic wall, the complexity, the fragmentation, the indeterminacy, of the modern city.”  (Blumin, p. 241).

In Werner’s series of Florence, the sense of indeterminacy is rendered more calmly, and above all through a cast of stylized (and stylish) characters elegantly coursing through the spaces. These figures are like charming, nonchalant guides to the city’s magnificent buildings, monuments, gardens, and streets, which are depicted through a juxtaposition of clean, architectural lines and finely detailed ornamentation. Florence is thus presented as both a formidable, important city and, especially with the bright and cheery contemporary hand-colouring, a confectionary wonderland, ripe and ready for any number of fêtes galantes.

A major centre for the production of vedute—and indeed for printmaking in general—was Augsburg, where, in the 1720s, the intrepid Friedrich Bernhard Werner went to receive formal training in perspective drawing. By that time he had already demonstrated the sort of restless curiosity that would fuel his lengthy career. Born in 1690 in or near Kamenz in Lower Silesia, Werner’s early schooling was at a Jesuit school which he left to pursue a military career. There he learned military drawing and engineering, providing the basis for later work as a scenographer, surveyor, and geometer, and he would also work as a “quack” doctor, translator, and clerk. His tremendous abilities were widely recognized and he was often employed in the service of royal houses, even being awarded the title of Royal Prussian Scenographicus by Frederick the Great in 1744.

Friedrich Bernhard Werner, Prospettiva della Villa del Sig.re Marchesi Corsini Sotto la Pictraja fuori di Firenze, from La famosa e meritevole città di Firenze, Augsburg, Merz, 1735.

Above all, however, this self-proclaimed “Silesian Robinson” (according to Werner’s autobiography, likely written between 1758 and 1765 but published only in 1921) was drawn to exploring and drawing the areas and edifices around him, and already on his first extensive travels, which took place between 1709 and 1715, he produced sketches of over 400 places.

Following his perspective training in Augsburg, Werner’s keen eye for detail and passion for travel proved highly desirable for several of the major publishing houses there, and between 1726/7 and 1737 many of them commissioned the artist to produce views of his travels to major cities across Europe which would then be engraved and offered on the market. Chief among these was the local master Johann Georg Merz the Elder (1694-1762), who is responsible for printing the beautiful series La famosa e meritevole città di Firenze presented here.  

Friedrich Bernhard Werner, Prospettiva della chiesa di S. Michelino di Lantinoro, con il palazzo Pasquale in Firenze, from La famosa e meritevole città di Firenze, Augsburg, Merz, 1735.

The series is a highlight in Werner’s early career, but much more was still to come. After his work with the Augsburg publishers, he went on to receive commissions from publishers further abroad. He also published two series of views on his own and produced several unpublished collections of drawings. Each of these attests to the great attention and detail he brought to his work, though these qualities are perhaps most strikingly exemplified by his impressive five-volume Topographia oder Prodromus Delineati Silesiae Ducatus, a collection of 1,400 views of over 700 places.

Friedrich Bernhard Werner, Prospettiva della Chiesa e la Piazza di S. Croce in Firenze dove nel Carnevale vi si fa Pallegio, from La famosa e meritevole città di Firenze, Augsburg, Merz, 1735.

He would ultimately create more than 3,500 views throughout his over 60-year career, and is responsible for creating some of the most important city views and architectural drawings of the eighteenth century. Often his engravings established iconic views of the cities in question and, as Werner expert Angelika Marsch points out, several were even used to help reconstruct cities that were badly damaged during the Second World War (A. Marsch, Friedrich Bernhard Werner 1690-1776: Corpus seiner europäischen Städteansichten, Weißenhorn, 2010, p. IX). La famosa e meritevole città di Firenze is thus a beautifully artistic snapshot of Florence in the mid-1730s as well as of Werner himself, at a critical early stage in a remarkably long, prodigious, and important career.

Friedrich Bernhard Werner, La Veduta dalla parte di dietro del medesimo Pallazzo col Cortile e Giardino in Firenze, from La famosa e meritevole città di Firenze, Augsburg, Merz, 1735.

For more information about this series or to arrange a viewing please write to us at info@prphbooks.com.

How to cite this information

Julia Stimac, “Friedrich Bernhard Werner’s 'La famosa e meritevole città di Firenze',” PRPH Books, 8 June 2022, https://www.prphbooks.com/blog/werner. Accessed [date].

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