Ampia Vista

My Le coste del Mediterraneo travel book has taken me places.

I picked this edition up in an open-air antique market in the town of Montefelcino, Italy. Fossombrone, nearby, is where I spent several years living and working as a shoe designer. Montefelcino is also near Urbino, scene of a proto-rennaissance under the patronage of Federico da Montefeltro (duke of Urbino from 1444 to 1482). For a short time it became one of the major cultural centres of Europe. The medieval Montefelcino served as fortress, created to defend the borders of the Dukedom of Urbino. This is where I found this book.

Le coste del Mediterraneo was published by Mondadori in 1976 (my birth year) and it’s generous pages present full-spread colour photographs (mostly by Agenzia SEF and S.Trimboli) of picturesque towns and arid landscapes along the Mediterranean coast such as Spain, Greece, Italy and Turkey.

Ampia Vista includes photographs of a characteristic windmill in Mykonos and, on the other side of the page, a view of the royal cemetery in Mycenae, Southern Greece. The title, like all l the other names I choose for these types of images, are composed of words gleaned from adjacent pages. Ampia Vista translates as ‘wide/expansive view’ - this seems to capture the illusion of depth and layers created when, through a paper thin distance, light passes.

This image seems to resonate with others too, its is one of the most popular images from this series with viewers and collectors. Recently I heard one collector remark that it appears “painterly” and brings to mind a Bruegel-esque landscape.

Which brings us back to to the 15th century, via Belgium, Greece and Italy.

Ampia Vista is now available here