Prospectus Castri e Pontis S. Angeli

Etching, 1666, signed and dated on lower left plate.

Example in the very rare first state of three, before the engraving adjustments.

Magnificent work, printed on contemporary laid paper trimmed to platemark, sings of central paper fold, otherwise in excellent condition.

Cruyl started drawing and carving landscapes around 1664, when he moved to Rome. His first works were twenty-one drawings which were once kept at the Albertina in Vienna and are nowadays divided between the Cleveland Museum and Rijksmuseum. Since they were meant to be used for the engravings, the drawings are the counterpart of the depicted subjects.

Only ten of these subjects have been engraved by Cruyl and published for the first time in 1666 by Giovan Battista de Rossi in a volume dedicated to Pope Alessandro VII, called Prospectus loco rum Urbis Romae Insignis, afterwards reissued by Matteo Gregorio de Rossi in 1692/98.

Cruyl characterized every view by including figures that stick perfectly with the urban context and, at the same time, describes and defines the city monuments of the Chigi period. To reach his aim, he did not hesitate to alter the real perspective or to change the appearance of the city. Very rare.

Literature

B. Jatta, Lievin Cruyl e la sua opera grafica, pp. 53/9, 11.