Veduta del Castello, e Ponte Sant'Angelo, abbellito, et adornato con le statue degli angeli da Papa Clemente IX
| Reference: | S360860 |
| Author | Giovanni Battista FALDA |
| Year: | 1671 ca. |
| Zone: | Castel Sant'Angelo |
| Printed: | Rome |
| Measures: | 690 x 470 mm |
| Reference: | S360860 |
| Author | Giovanni Battista FALDA |
| Year: | 1671 ca. |
| Zone: | Castel Sant'Angelo |
| Printed: | Rome |
| Measures: | 690 x 470 mm |
Description
Inscription in lower left corner of image: Io Baptista Falda dell. e Sculpit. 1671.
The print shows Ponte Sant'Angelo in Rome, decorated with sculptures of angels holding the Instruments of the Passion, that were designed by Gianlorenzo Bernini and other sculptors. A papal procession is seen crossing the bridge, with a view of Castel Sant'Angelo in the background.
Splendid impression of this fine view of the festival held on the occasion of Pope CLEMENT X taking possession of the newly completed bridge at Sant'Angelo and the restored Castello Sant'Angelo. Most of the celebrated statues which Bernini and his studio executed for this bridge were completed in 1669 when Pope Clement IX, who had given Bernini the commission, died. The "Angel with the Cross," the statue in the right row on the bridge and considered the masterpiece of ERCOLE FERRATA, was not completed until 1670 and in the following year the bridge was formally inaugurated. In the foreground is the sedia gestatoria holding Pope Clement X followed by his College of Cardinals.
The engraving was entrusted by Bernini to Giovanni Battista Falda, the most accomplished architectural engraver in Rome. Bernini had given his designs to Faldo for the engraving. Their close relationship is evident in Falda's inclusion of Bernini's plan for the Colonnade of St. Peter with the so-called terzo braccio, which was never completed.
Perfect condition.
Literature
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Gandellini, Notizie degli Intagliatori, (Siena 1808-1816), vol. II, p. 7.
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Giovanni Battista FALDA (Valduggia, Novara, 1643; Rome, 1678)
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Giovan Battista Falda, a native of Valduggia, was sent to Rome at the age of 14 and entrusted to the care of an uncle who pointed him out to Gian Lorenzo Bernini. But it was his meeting with printer Gian Giacomo De Rossi that marked a turning point in Falda's artistic career: in fact, his talent was directed by the publisher to the art of engraving. In De Rossi's workshop he could also appreciate the work of great engravers such as J. Callot, S. Della Bella and I. Silvestre; having completed his apprenticeship, he was benevolently received at the papal court, so much so that Alexander VII commissioned him to design the factories of the Castel Gandolfo residence. In 1665, Falda gave to the presses for the publisher De Rossi his masterpiece: the plates of the first book of the Nuovo Teatro delle fabbriche, et edificii, in prospettiva di Roma moderna sotto il felice pontificato di n. s. Alessandro VII, which was followed, between 1665 and '69, by the second and third. The work was intended to popularize the new image of Rome: the Pope, in fact, decided to open new streets, to embellish the city with fountains and monuments, also as a demonstration of the financial and cultural power of his family. With the Nuovo Teatro, as with the later collections devoted to fountains and palaces, Falda became the popularizer of these aspects; his engraved views, characterized by attention to both perspective rules and scenographic effects, skillfully exploit the vigor of line and the richness of the contrast between black and white, in keeping with the spatial criteria of Baroque art. The specifically popular and commercial aspect of the engraved views was skillfully exploited by the publisher De Rossi, who established an inseparable and effective partnership with Falda, to whom much of the printed production of the century in Rome was owed, with a fortune comparable only to that which would be paid to the work of Giovan Battista Piranesi. Falda's activity was tireless despite the brevity of the time span in which he worked (he died at the age of 35 on August 22, 1678 and was buried in S. Maria della Scala in Trastevere). By the end of his life he had engraved about 300 plates: many of these are preserved in Rome at the Calcografia nazionale.
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Literature
|
Gandellini, Notizie degli Intagliatori, (Siena 1808-1816), vol. II, p. 7.
|
Giovanni Battista FALDA (Valduggia, Novara, 1643; Rome, 1678)
|
Giovan Battista Falda, a native of Valduggia, was sent to Rome at the age of 14 and entrusted to the care of an uncle who pointed him out to Gian Lorenzo Bernini. But it was his meeting with printer Gian Giacomo De Rossi that marked a turning point in Falda's artistic career: in fact, his talent was directed by the publisher to the art of engraving. In De Rossi's workshop he could also appreciate the work of great engravers such as J. Callot, S. Della Bella and I. Silvestre; having completed his apprenticeship, he was benevolently received at the papal court, so much so that Alexander VII commissioned him to design the factories of the Castel Gandolfo residence. In 1665, Falda gave to the presses for the publisher De Rossi his masterpiece: the plates of the first book of the Nuovo Teatro delle fabbriche, et edificii, in prospettiva di Roma moderna sotto il felice pontificato di n. s. Alessandro VII, which was followed, between 1665 and '69, by the second and third. The work was intended to popularize the new image of Rome: the Pope, in fact, decided to open new streets, to embellish the city with fountains and monuments, also as a demonstration of the financial and cultural power of his family. With the Nuovo Teatro, as with the later collections devoted to fountains and palaces, Falda became the popularizer of these aspects; his engraved views, characterized by attention to both perspective rules and scenographic effects, skillfully exploit the vigor of line and the richness of the contrast between black and white, in keeping with the spatial criteria of Baroque art. The specifically popular and commercial aspect of the engraved views was skillfully exploited by the publisher De Rossi, who established an inseparable and effective partnership with Falda, to whom much of the printed production of the century in Rome was owed, with a fortune comparable only to that which would be paid to the work of Giovan Battista Piranesi. Falda's activity was tireless despite the brevity of the time span in which he worked (he died at the age of 35 on August 22, 1678 and was buried in S. Maria della Scala in Trastevere). By the end of his life he had engraved about 300 plates: many of these are preserved in Rome at the Calcografia nazionale.
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