ABSTRACT
Considerations of iconography in geography have a long connection with Italy and Venice in particular. The city’s connection to its watery setting and the terraferma beyond has been explored historically through the written word, the painted image and the map. Venice’s rocky horizon, however, has been somewhat neglected by art historians and geographers alike in formulating landscape concepts. The Dolomite Mountains are exposed here in little-discussed visual examples by Joseph Pennell, John Ruskin and William Logsdail. These establish this mountainous background within an intimate and complex interplay with Venice’s waterscape itself.
