Obelisco e piazza di Montecitorio

Etching with engraving, about 1789, signed in plate lower right.

Beautiful proof, printed on contemporary laid paper with watermark "Fabriano", with margins, small tear on the right side perfectly restored, otherwise in excellent condition.

The work is printed at the final settlement of the square of the House, designed by architect Giovanni Antinori. In 1789, in fact, Pius VI gave Antinori to task the center of the square with the obelisk which the Emperor Augustus had brought to Rome. The stele - found in 1748 near Piazza San Lorenzo in Lucina - came from Heliopolis where he was raised in honor of Psammetichus II, between 594 and 589 BC, to commemorate the victory over the Ethiopians. On top, Pius VI took place was a globe of bronze with a central slot through which, at noon, the sun passes, drawing a bright spot in the shade so that the obelisk casts on the floor of the square, in memory of function gnomon, the dial of which had already been drawn on the floor of a plaza at San Lorenzo in Lucina, to which the Emperor Augustus had intended.

Work of great rarity.