Li Giardini di Roma…con Priv. del’S. Pont l’anno 1683
Reference: | S30032 |
Author | Giovanni Battista FALDA |
Year: | 1683 |
Measures: | - x - mm |
Reference: | S30032 |
Author | Giovanni Battista FALDA |
Year: | 1683 |
Measures: | - x - mm |
Description
Title: Li Giardini di Roma con le loro piante alzate e vedute in prospettiva disegnate ed intagliate da Gio. Battista Falda. Nuovamente dati alle stampe, con direttione, e cura di Gio: Giacomo de Rossi, alla Pace, all’Insegna di Parigi in Roma con Priv. del’S. Pont l’anno 1683.
Gardens of Rome with their plants raised and views in perspective drawn and engraved by Giovanni Battista Falda . Oblong folio , title page, frontispiece engraved by Arnold van Westerhout after a drawing by G.B. Manelli and 19 plates, 14 of which are engraved in copper by Giovan Battista Falda and 5 by Simone Felice. Modern half leather binding, gold title to spine. A wonderful example of the second edition of the work, dated 1683, with the plates in the first state of two before the numbering of the sheets.
Magnificent impressions, printed on contemporary laid paper, with wide margins, in excellent conditions. .
The term “nuovamente dati alle stampe” would indicate the existence of a first edition of the work, which is definitely next to 1677 because it does not appear in the Index of the publisher De Rossi of that year. As Giovan Battista Falda died in Rome in August of 1677, there are no doubt that the work was published posthumously. This second edition dated 1683 is unknown to Bellini, that believes unwrapped dating - proposed by Brunet - 1683 because on that date A. van Westerhout was just sixteen, and then it would have been too young to engrave the wonderful allegoric title page.
A magnific set of the roman gardens of Falda.
Literature
Bartsch 1, 2 e 56-70; TIB 056-076 I/II; Brunet, volume 2, p. 1171; Bellini 213-227; Nagler, vol. 4, p. 447.
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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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Literature
Bartsch 1, 2 e 56-70; TIB 056-076 I/II; Brunet, volume 2, p. 1171; Bellini 213-227; Nagler, vol. 4, p. 447.
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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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