Arco di Settimio Severo
| Reference: | S45577 |
| Author | Giovan Battista PIRANESI |
| Year: | 1759 ca. |
| Zone: | Arco di Settimio Severo |
| Printed: | Rome |
| Measures: | 590 x 380 mm |
€1,750.00
| Reference: | S45577 |
| Author | Giovan Battista PIRANESI |
| Year: | 1759 ca. |
| Zone: | Arco di Settimio Severo |
| Printed: | Rome |
| Measures: | 590 x 380 mm |
€1,750.00
Description
Etching and engraving, 1759 circa, signed on plate.
Example of the fourth state of six described by Hind, with the address “Presso l’Autore a Strada Felice nel palazzo Tomati vicino alla Trinità de’ monti”, from the Roman Edition.
Beautiful proof, printed on contemporary laid paper with "lily with crown" watermark (Robison 58), with margins, in perfect condition. Antique brown ink inscriptions - probably of the time - that translate the title and captions of the engraving into French.
View taken from Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma.
The whole work consists of 135 plates which have been individually produced by Piranesi along 30 years, from 1745 circa until his death. Two more works have been subsequently added, two plates by his son Francesco. They have been printed for the first time in 1751 (34 plates) by the editor Giovanni Bouchard, afterwards by Piranesi himself, publisher first in Strada Felice an the in Palazzo Tomati, imprint that can be found in mostly of the plates), until the final edition of 137 plates. After Piranesi's death, his son Francesco inherited the plates, editing them first in Rome and then in Paris, where three editions were printed - the so-called "first Paris edition", an intermediate one (both on laid paper) and the one edited by the publisher Firmin Didot, the first on wove paper, where the plates have an Arabic ordinal number added. All Parisi issues are rather modest in quality, far from how Piranesi had thought and conceived them. The plates were then acquired by the Calcografia Camerale, then Calcografia Nazionale, today Istituto Centrale per la Grafica, where they are still kept.
Bibliografia
Arthur M. Hind, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, A critical study (1922), n. 54, IV/VI; H. Focillon, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1918), n. 809.
Giovan Battista PIRANESI (Mogliano Veneto 1720 - Roma 1778)
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Italian etcher, engraver, designer, architect, archaeologist and theorist. He is considered one of the supreme exponents of topographical engraving, but his lifelong preoccupation with architecture was fundamental to his art. Although few of his architectural designs were executed, he had a seminal influence on European Neo-classicism through personal contacts with architects, patrons and visiting artists in Rome over the course of nearly four decades. His prolific output of etched plates, which combined remarkable flights of imagination with a strongly practical understanding of ancient Roman technology, fostered a new and lasting perception of antiquity. He was also a designer of festival structures and stage sets, interior decoration and furniture, as well as a restorer of antiquities. The interaction of this rare combination of activities led him to highly original concepts of design, which were advocated in a body of influential theoretical writings. The ultimate legacy of his unique vision of Roman civilization was an imaginative interpretation and re-creation of the past, which inspired writers and poets as much as artists and designers.
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Giovan Battista PIRANESI (Mogliano Veneto 1720 - Roma 1778)
|
Italian etcher, engraver, designer, architect, archaeologist and theorist. He is considered one of the supreme exponents of topographical engraving, but his lifelong preoccupation with architecture was fundamental to his art. Although few of his architectural designs were executed, he had a seminal influence on European Neo-classicism through personal contacts with architects, patrons and visiting artists in Rome over the course of nearly four decades. His prolific output of etched plates, which combined remarkable flights of imagination with a strongly practical understanding of ancient Roman technology, fostered a new and lasting perception of antiquity. He was also a designer of festival structures and stage sets, interior decoration and furniture, as well as a restorer of antiquities. The interaction of this rare combination of activities led him to highly original concepts of design, which were advocated in a body of influential theoretical writings. The ultimate legacy of his unique vision of Roman civilization was an imaginative interpretation and re-creation of the past, which inspired writers and poets as much as artists and designers.
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