MORTIER, PIERRE: VIEW OF HERCEG-NOVI (MONTENEGRO)

This Mortier's view of Herceg-Novi was included in the “Noveau Theatre de l’ Italie” published in 1724 by the Dutch publisher Rutger Christopher Alberts. Mortier based the representation of this important Venetian fortress in the then Venetian Dalmatia (now in Montenegro) on some earlier Venetian view, presumably on those made by Vincenzo Maria Coronelli and Giuseppe Juster who produced similar views of fortresses for their atlases published in Venice around the turn of the 17th/18th century. Herceg-Novi was one of the key-role naval outposts of the Venetian Republic on the Eastern Adriatic and for that reason it appeared in every atlas edition of the time. As the view was produced at the time of Venetian-Turkish wars, in the representation of the town the emphasis is placed on its fortification system – city walls and towers and the topographical position of the settlement itself.