An Ecofeminist Problem of Knowledge Production in Pietro Longhi's 'La lezione di geografia'

What gets said about the world, who does the talking, and where? One starting point for thinking through these questions is 'La lezione di geografia' by the Venetian artist Pietro Longhi (1701–85). Eighteenth-century art may seem quite far from the sorts of biostratigraphic evidence being marshalled for consideration by the International Union of Geological Sciences to settle on a Golden Spike differentiating the human race as a geomorphological force within the Holocene. Lateral thinking is one of the guiding principles of the environmental humanities: it is one thing to specify the 'problem' of the Anthropocene in technical terms; it is quite another to engage with societal causes. Since the future of the Venetian hydropolis — and the rest of our planet — is liable to be significantly shaped by how generations face up to the sorts of complexities on show in artefacts like 'La lezione di geografia', the heritage sector’s educational value has never been greater.