Disegno del modo di condurre l'obelisco detto volgar[en]te la Guglia…

Engraving, 1586, inscribed in the cartouche at lower left: Domenico Fontana da/ Mili Diocesi di Como/ Inventore et Conduttore. Obelisk inscriptions: DIVO CAES. DIVI/ IVLII. F. AUGUSTO/ TLCAES. DIVI AVG/F. AUGUS. SACRUM. In the upper cartouche, the last part of the alfabhetical key (A-N), with only the references F-N detailing the engineering project.

One sheet, of three composing the complete work. Engraved by Natale Bonifacio, after Giovanni Guerra, and published by Bartolomeo Grassi.

The title is on the first left sheet:
Disegno del modo di condurre l'obelisco detto uolgar[en]te la Guglia dal luogo remoto dietro la Chesa di S. Pietro…alla piazza di rimpetto la parta principale della med[esi]ma Chiesa
[Drawing of the Method of Moving the Obelisk known familiarly as the Spire from the obscure location behind the Church of St. Peter to the plaza facing the main part of the same Church]

Good impression, printed on a contemporary laid paper, with watermark, white margins, in good condition.

The complete work, consisting of three separate sheets joined.
Text from Michel Bury: 'The Print in Italy 1550-1620' (London, 2001), p.102, cat.64.

This print presents in an extremely imaginative way Domenco Fontana's scheme for the moving of the Vatican obelisk in 1586. Use is made of a great variety of visual conventions, from diagram and sectional elevation to perspective view, with the images keyed to extended pieces of explanatory text by means of letters of the alphabet. The views of the obelisk as it was and as it was to be, are represented as if on separate pieces of paper or parchment that have been unrolled on top of a sheet showing the methods that were to be employed for the actual moving. By these means an immense amount of information is conveyed in a visually exciting and attractive manner.

Sixtus V's (1585-90) idea of moving the obelisk from its relatively obscure site to the south of the Basilica, in order to align it on the main east/west axis, was intended, in the words of Fontana: 'to provide the greatest and the most excellent pedestal for the Cross that has ever been made, and also to abolish the memory of ancient superstition and to adorn both the Piazza and the spectacular new building of St Peter's ('di fare un piede alla Croce, il maggiore, et il più eccellente, ch'a lei sia stato fatto giàmai, e per levar la memoria della superstitione antica, e per adornarne la piazza, e la nuova fabrica stupenda di San Pietro' (see 'Della Trasportatione', 1590, f.4v.).

The idea had not orginated with Sixtus. Camillo Agrippa referred to the fact that when he first came to Rome in 1535, he found it being talked about ('Trattato ..di trasportare la guglia in su la piazza di San Pietro' Rome, 1583, p.5). Early in Sixtus' pontificate a number of people had put forward proposals for accomplishing this exceptionally challenging task. The decision to choose Domenico Fontana's scheme was made in a special Congregation which met from 24 August 1585. Fontana began work on the foundations for the placing of the obelisk on the Piazza di San Pietro on 25 September 1585 ('Della Trasportatione', 1590, ff.4v-5v). The actual process of moving it began on the last day of April 1586, employing 5 levers, 40 capstans, 907 men and 75 horses.
The design for the present print must have been produced before the arrangements for the moving were finalised, for some aspects of what is shown do not correspond with what we know actually happened. Fontana was later to draw attention to this in his book, 'Della Trasportatione', where he felt it necessary to correct the estimate of the weight of the obelisk as it had been given in one of the texts on the print ('Della Trasportatione', 1590, f.9v). The most obvious differences between what is represented and what was finally done were, firstly, the fact that steps were provided on the main outer beams of the wooden 'castle' to allow the workmen to climb up and down; secondly, that men accompanied the horses at the capstans to ensure a more precise control over the amount of weight each of them supported at any one time; and thirdly, that the number of 'verghe' (the vertical elements of the metal frame in which the obelisk was encased) was reduced from 4 to 3 on each side. Giovanni Guerra, who made the drawing for the etcher to work from, was therefore almost certainly using drawings by Fontana himself.
How much of the final appearance of the print should be attributed to Fontana and how much to Guerra, must remain in doubt. A preparatory drawing in the Bibliothèque de l'École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, (Cecchi Gattolin and Parma Armani, 1978, p.86, no.77bis) shows how Guerra worked towards the final solution. But the need for technical accuracy makes it likely that Fontana would have been closely involved even at this stage. Guerra would primarily have been concerned with creating a visually effective and informative whole that would make an appropriate impact when presented in the form of a print. The placement of the components and the designs of the cartouches will certainly have been his.