Here’s a curiosity! Have you ever wondered what Rome would look like, to someone from the alien cultures of China or Japan?
David Blocker kindly emailed me the following image, which he found on Wikipedia here. It was made by a Japanese artist who had never seen Rome, and to whom a ruined stone city was utterly alien since he lived in a world constructed mostly of wood.
I learn from Wikipedia that the artist was Utagawa Toyoharu (d. 1814), and is based on an 18th century western print of various monuments of Rome. It belongs to the Edo period, when Japan was closed to westerners.
Fascinating. Thank you David!
Roger, I found an interesting article pertaining to this matter:
http://museum.maidstone.gov.uk/confused-japanese-print-toyoharus-dutch-views/
A better version of the Wikipedia image:
http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/a-franciscan-monastery-in-holland-oranda-furansukano-garan-no-zu-actually-the-roman-forum-208550
A slightly different version of the woodblock print:
http://museum.maidstone.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BLOG-confused-japanese-print-1.jpg
http://cdn.learninglab.si.edu/resources/view/247303#
There are some similar images from China in a blog post I did a year ago here: https://macrotypography.blogspot.de/2015/09/wonders-in-china.html Those images date from some time between 1620 and 1640 in a wood-block printing entitled K`un-yü t`u-shuo (An Illustrated Explanation of Geography), now in container Borg.cin.350 at the Vatican.
Thank you @Ezio for researching this further, and posting these links!
@JB Piggin: Thank you also for this. I appreciate what you do, especially in working with the Vatican manuscripts.