Veduta della Piazza del Popolo
[created pre 1751, this print after 1761]
Caption:
1. Chiesa di S. M. de Miracoli. 2. Chiesa di S. M. di Monte Santo. 3. Strada del Corso, che conduce al Palazzo di Venezia. 4. Strada, che conduce a Piazza di Spagna. 5. Strada, che conduce al Porto di Ripetta. 6. Guglia Egiziaca inalzata da Sisto V.
Piazza del Popolo, originally the Roman Porta Flaminia, marking the northern entrance into the city, is one of Baroque Rome’s finest achievements: once an open space for the movement and congregation of animals and produce, the creation of the via Leonina (today’s via di Ripetta) by Raphael and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger in 1518 marked the first major reorganisation of the space. The modern via del Babuino was completed under Pope Paul III, with a fountain added in 1572 and the obelisk erected by Domenico Fontana in 1589. The paired churches of S. Maria di Montesanto, between via del Babuino and the central via del Corso and S. Maria dei Miracoli to the right, between the Corso and via di Ripetta were complete by 1689, and gave the space its harmonious, symmetrical character, with the obelisk the focal point at its centre. It was this symmetry that Vasi highlighted in his print of the piazza (Stanford University Imago Urbis); he presents the view that would have greeted all visitors to the city arriving by that gate, with the obelisk directing traffic towards the central Corso, as the two thoroughfares on either side hint at the expanse of the city beyond. Piranesi’s veduta of the piazza rejects such a traditional approach entirely, and instead offers a view that is both familiar and disorienting in its exaggeration. Like Vasi’s print, the fourteenth century BC obelisk remains at the centre of the composition, but the scale and placement of the other buildings is markedly different. The carefully arranged symmetry of the two pendant churches is ruined by the reduced scale of S. Maria dei Miracoli, which appears set back from the beginning of the dramatically widened Corso, and from the obstruction of its belfry, which increases the sense of the two churches’ supposed difference. The vie del Babuino and di Ripetta are also widened, to increase their depths of view, and the length of the piazza itself is compressed by the elongation of its breadth. Most confusingly, the steps of S. Maria del Popolo, the church that sits just inside the arched gate to the square, are depicted almost in touching distance of the base of the obelisk, which in fact stood exactly equidistant from all three places of worship. The overall effect has been suggested to be that of a late-Renaissance stage design, merged with an expansive airiness that is at odds both with the crude piles of architectural rubble and muddy carriage-tracks in the foreground of the image, and with the reality of the space in Piranesi’s day.
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP14-109
Catalogo delle Opere (1761) no. 14
Focillon no. 794
Hind (1922) no. 14
Wilton-Ely no. 141
Bibliography
Williams, R.B. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 6, pp. 47-48.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Veduta della Piazza del Popolo. Author(s) of this publication: Caroline Barron. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/ Date visited:
Veduta di Piazza di Spagna
[created pre 1751, this print after 1761]
Caption:
1. Fontana detta la Barcaccia, Architettura del Cav. Bernino. 2 Scalinata, che conduce sul Monte Pincio. 3. Chiesa col Monastero della SS. Trinità de’ Monti officiata dai Frati Minimi di S. Francesco di Paola della Nazione Franzese. 4. Strada del Babuino, che và alla Porta del Popolo. 5. Obelisco sulla Piazza del Popolo.
Piranesi clearly intends to focus the gaze of the viewer here on the curved forms of the fountain of the Barcaccia, as he places it in the centreground of the sunlit piazza framed by the shadows of the morning sun. It is also the centre of activity of people, animals and commercial life, all directed by the compositional diagonals to the left and right - the left being the narrow via del Babuino leading in exaggerated distance and perspective to the obelisk in the piazza del Popolo and the right, the geometrical angles of the flights of stairs that make up the Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti (the Spanish Steps). Momentum on the left hand side of the composition is created by the dash of arriving horsemen and carriages that contrasts with the more stately progress of elegant figures on the steps. The convent of Trinità dei Monti is only faintly outlined above with, on the high horizon, the tree tops of the convent gardens and those of the neighbouring Villa Medici. The caption lists the major buildings in the view and the fountain is first, with the credit to “Cav. Bernino”. The convent on the hillside is given its full designation: “of the Franciscan Minim brothers of S. Francesco di Paola, belonging to the French nation”. This church must have been very familiar to him as it was the closest to his home and his studio-workshop at Palazzo Tomati on what is now the via Sistina, running along the crest of the hillside south-eastwards. The foreground is, as is common in the Vedute, cast in deep shadow.
This can be compared to the view offered by Vasi in his print, where the aspect is facing southwards towards the Propaganda Fide palace; the Scalinata is not shown in full and there is much less activity in the piazza than Piranesi includes (Stanford University Imago Urbis).
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP16-117
Catalogo delle Opere (1761) no. 18
Focillon no. 795
Hind (1922) no. 18 IV
Wilton-Ely no. 154
Bibliography
Shell, O. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn.
Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 28, pp. 64-65.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Veduta di Piazza di Spagna. Author(s) of this publication: Clare Hornsby. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=1. Date visited:
Veduta del Porto di Ripetta
[created pre 1751, this print after 1761]
Caption:
1. S. Girolamo de’ Schiavoni. 2. Dogana di Ripetta. 3. Colonne, o mete, nelle quali sono segnate le maggiori escrescenze del Tevere. 4. Palazzo del Principe Borghese. 5. Stale dello stesso Principe. 6. Palazzo della sua Famiglia. 7. Colleggio Clementino.
The beautiful architectural sweep of Alessandro Specchi’s monumental staircase, created as part of a redevelopment of the area by the Albani pope Clement XI which included a large seminary on the river bank near Palazzo Borghese, the Collegio Clementino, is the focus of the Vasi print (Stanford University Imago Urbis) that shows this secondary port, upstream from Ripa Grande. Piranesi, however, has different concerns, namely the many different figures of all social types involved in activity on the port itself and in the streets adjacent; the protagonists of the scene are the boats moored and approaching their moorings. Their cargoes of wine barrels and hay (much of which can be seen covering areas of the steps), the many ropes, oars and other boating tackle, the crews bending, gesturing and calling to each other and the repetition of the upwards thrust of the curved prows and spreading wooden hulls of the river boats are all described with verve. The view is taken from the right bank of the Tiber; on the Nolli map there is a ferry delineated just upstream from the Ripetta. In the right foreground shade Piranesi places a pair of elegantly dressed men, deep in discussion, whose gestures stand out in profile against the sunlit river surface.
There is an overall busy-ness to the image, with all the little windows in all the buildings carefully delineated with their cornices, frames and shadows, which prevents any one of the notable architectural features from standing out.
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP16-118
Catalogo delle Opere (1761) no. 28
Focillon no. 814
Hind (1922) no. 28 IV
Wilton-Ely no. 155
Bibliography
Wojtowicz, R. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 29, p. 65.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Veduta del Porto di Ripetta. Author(s) of this publication: Clare Hornsby. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=2. Date visited:
Colonna Antonina
[created pre 1751, this print after 1761]
Caption:
1. Palazzo Chigi. 2. Piazza Colonna. 3. Strada del Corso.
Possibly created as a pendant to the print of the Colonna Trajana (see: TA[PRI]-GBP16-114), this image of the ‘Antonine Column’, depicts one of Rome’s most vital social spaces in Piranesi’s day. Situated on the via del Corso, between Piazza Venezia and Piazza del Popolo, and sandwiched between the Palazzo Quirinale - the papal court - and the Renaissance heart of the city near the river, Piazza Colonna was the central converging point for fashionable visitors, merchants, tradespeople and the secular community of eighteenth-century Rome. The title of the print is taken from the name of the monument dedicated by the Roman Senate to the emperor Marcus Aurelius - but commonly confused as a dedication to his adopted father, Anontinus Pius, whose name he took on and used in inscriptions - following his death in 180 AD. Piranesi’s print highlights the significance of the column with dark shadows and its looming scale that dominates the vertical height of the print. Palazzo Chigi, visible to the left, is rendered in light tones that do little justice to its austere, harmonious facade, which has been brought closer to the column to create a backdrop for its imposing status and the activity taking place around it. The strange triangular shadow cast across the front of the base of the column is a further architectural manipulation, its dimensions at odds with the Palazzo Nicolai that stood at that angle. Cross-sections of the column’s base are the subject of other of Piranesi’s prints, which analyse its construction, inscription and iconography. Here, like Vasi, (Stanford University Imago Urbis), Piranesi has instead chosen to focus on the social role of the piazza, rather than the monument itself.
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP16-115
Catalogo delle Opere (1761) no. 52
Focillon no. 799
Hind (1922) no. 52
Wilton-Ely no. 151
Bibliography
Wojtowicz, R. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 19, p. 58.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Colonna Antonina. Author(s) of this publication: Caroline Barron. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=3. Date visited:
Veduta della Gran Curia Innocenziana edificata sulle rovine dell’Anfiteatro di Statilio Tauro, che formano l’odierno Monte Citorio
[created pre 1751, this print after 1761]
Caption:
1. Veduta della Gran Curia Innocenziana edificata sulle rovine dell’Anfiteatro di Statilio Tauro, che formano l’odierno Monte Citorio. 2. Residenza di Monsig.r Uditor Generale della Rev. Camera. 3. Residenza di Monsig.r Tesorier Generale. 4. Gran Sala dell’Udienza. 5. Residenze de’ Prelati Luogotenenti dell’Uditorato. 6. Ufizj, o Cancellerie de’ Notari del medesimo Uditorato. 7. Palazzo colle Segreterie e Cancellieri della Rev. Camera. 8. Piedistallo che sosteneva anticamente la Colonna dell’Apoteosi di Antonino Pio, estratto insieme con essa dai fondamenti delle vicine Case de' Signori della Missione, e fatto ultimamente erigere sulla piazza dalla Santità di N. S. Benedetto XIV. 9. Piazza Colonna. 10. Colonna Antonina colle gesta di M. Aurelio per la Vittoria de' Marcomanni. 11. Palazzo del Principe Chigi. 12. Palazzo Spada sulla via del Corso.
The curious form of the palace at Montecitorio - tripartite with additional side wings symmetrically set back from the central section with its attached columns supporting the piano nobile balcony - is not made obvious in Piranesi’s view, unlike the more straightforward composition of the Vasi print (Stanford University Imago Urbis).
Instead, the facade of the palace - called the Curia Innocenziana at the time and containing various papal offices which are carefully listed in nos. 2-7 of the caption - forms a screen on the left of the image which diminishes in an exaggerated perspective towards the seemingly distant Palazzo Spada on the via del Corso, no. 12 in the caption. This compositional device serves to emphasise the elevation of the centre section of the palace. The title - or first element of the caption, as the two are elided - immediately focuses on the topographical feature of a hill: “... built on the ruins of the amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus that form today’s Monte Citorio”. Piranesi also located this amphitheatre here in the Campus Martius plan and it is shown in its imagined original state in one of the plate XLVIII views in that volume. This is now known to be incorrect, the amphitheatre was probably located nearer to the Tiber, perhaps at what is now Monte dei Cenci.
The antiquarian interest of this area is also highlighted by the composition, since the sculptural reliefs on the base of the now lost column of Antoninus Pius face the central section of the palace across the space of the print and like it are illuminated by the sunshine. This base is now in the Vatican gardens and the obelisk/gnomon originally erected by Augustus was repositioned here by pope Pius VI. The column of Marcus Aurelius, another important antiquity dating from the Antonine period which is the centre of the neighbouring piazza, is visible above the rooftops of the palace. The foreground is, as usual, populated with figures engaged in various day to day activities; two of the small groups are concentrating on the sculptures on the column base, with ciceroni pointing out its features to visitors.
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP18-130
Catalogo delle Opere (1761) no. 23
Focillon no. 738
Hind (1922) no. 23 I
Wilton-Ely no. 176
Bibliography
Moraci, A. (2018) ‘Edificio per spettacoli o magazzini? Sulle strutture attribuite all’anfiteatro di Statilio Tauro nel Campo Marzio meridionale’, Ostraka, 27, pp. 77-91.
Taylor, M. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 52, p. 83-84.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Veduta della Gran Curia Innocenziana edificata sulle rovine dell’Anfiteatro di Statilio Tauro, che formano l’odierno Monte Citorio. Author(s) of this publication: Clare Hornsby. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=4. Date visited:
Veduta della Dogana di Terra a Piazza di Pietra
[created pre 1751, this print after 1761]
Caption:
Questa fu fabbricata sulle rovine del Tempio di M. Aurelio Antonino Pio nel suo Foro. 1. Avanzo di Colonne rimaste, oggi mezzo internate nella nuova Fabbrica. 2. Architrave antico ristorato. 3. Cornicione, ed Ordine Attico nuovamente rifatto. 4. Abitazione moderna. 5. Collegio Bergamasco. 6. Quartiere de’ Soldati. 7. Strada che va al Corso.
The ‘Dogana di Terra’, or the Customs House of Rome, was the first official stop upon foreign visitors’ arrival in the city. Their bags and carriages would be checked for contraband or prohibited items, and any goods transported to the city by land were also subject there to the same checks. Piranesi’s print depicts the Dogana, which had been built into the remains of the ancient Temple of Hadrian in the Campus Martius in 1695. The monumental temple had been dedicated to the deified emperor Hadrian in 145 AD by his successor, Antoninus Pius, almost a decade after his death. In Piranesi’s print, we see eleven remaining columns of the portico, around which the contemporary Customs House was built; today much of this exterior wall has been removed to reveal the cella wall of the temple beyond the columns and the foundations. As is typical of these Vedute, Piranesi has distorted the perspective to increase the depth and breadth of the view, here manipulating it to suggest an unrealistic glimpse of the via del Corso. Piranesi’s focus here is not just on the activity and social aspects of the Customs House, which are indicated by the numbers of people and carriages that congregate in front of it, but on the dialogue between ancient and modern Rome that the building represents. The smooth, regular facade of the seventeenth century Dogana contrasts with the dark, heavy fluted columns, whose ruined Corinthian capitals loom large from above. The scale of the columns is emphasised by the diminishing size of the figures closest to them, and by the quaint washing-lines that are strung up between the neat, regular windows. In spite of the the people, animals, carriages and conversations that populate the image, it is the juxtaposition of this contemporary life with the ancient that attracts Piranesi’s attention; the caption beneath the print makes clear and precise distinctions between the ‘antico’ and the ‘moderno’, highlighting the extent to which the contemporary city was built quite literally into the ancient. (Stanford University Imago Urbis).
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP17-126
Catalogo delle Opere (1761) no. 32
Focillon no. 821
Hind (1922) no. 32
Wilton-Ely no. 168
Bibliography
Taylor, M.T. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 35, p. 69.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Veduta della Dogana di Terra a Piazza di Pietra. Author(s) of this publication: Caroline Barron. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=5. Date visited:
Veduta della Piazza della Rotonda
[created pre 1751, this print after 1761]
Caption:
1. Pantheon fabbricato da Marco Agrippa oggi S. Maria ad Martyres. 2. Fontana con Guglia Egiziaca architettura di Filippo Barigioni. 3. Pescaria. 4. Palazzo Crescenzi.
The Pantheon or “la Rotonda”, the most complete Roman temple, was a focus of intense antiquarian interest for Piranesi and featured in several of his illustrated volumes. This view of the piazza in front of it is dedicated instead to the daily life of the city and the temple turned basilica is relegated to the left of the image. (See TA[PRI]-GBP19-139 [link alla slide n. 7] for a view of the Pantheon itself). The focus of the composition - taken from a high viewpoint to the west - is the fountain and the obelisk with which it is decorated. The obelisk is called ‘Macuteo’ in the caption, from its original placement outside the church of S. Macuto. The architect Filippo Barigioni designed the pedestal and it was erected by him in 1711 under the papacy of Clement XI Albani. Originally from Heliopolis in Egypt it was one of two flanking the entrance to the temple of Isis and Serapis located in this part of the Campus Martius. Piranesi makes the obelisk appear far taller than it is, towering over the Pantheon. In the foreground of the image is a detailed genre scene showing a fishmarket, which is given its own reference number in the caption to the print, probably because the regularising of the market activity here was another initiative of Clement XI to improve the piazza. The stalls in the right foreground give way to the substantial market pavilions on the left where fish is being sold and cooked. On the viewer’s side of the foremost pavilion Piranesi includes a scene that appears to depict gaming: there are two men on the ground and other figures are bent over a scattering of small balls. The fact that Piranesi creates various levels of access in his view - the foreground game scene is hidden from the more respectable market goers - is reminiscent of the Venetian genre view tradition; Canaletto’s The Stonemason’s Yard comes to mind. This level of genre detail is unusual in Piranesi’s vedute prints. As is often the case, in this print Piranesi has created a more unorthodox composition as compared to Vasi’s view in which the obelisk and the Pantheon beyond are presented more directly to the gaze of the spectator (Stanford University Imago Urbis).
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP14-111
Catalogo delle Opere no. 17
Focillon no. 796
Hind (1922) no. 17 III
Wilton-Ely no. 144
Bibliography
James, K. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn.
Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 9, pp. 50-51.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Veduta della Piazza della Rotonda. Author(s) of this publication: Clare Hornsby. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=6. Date visited:
Veduta del Pantheon d’Agrippa oggi Chiesa di S. Maria ad Martyres
[created between 1751 and 1761, this print after 1761]
Caption:
* Pietre del timpano con bozze, e forami delle spranghe, che reggevano i bassirilievi di bronzo. Portico AB, Acroterio CD, e Frontespizio E contemporanei, per ciò che dimostra la interna lor costruttura, ed aggiunti posteriormente da Agrippa alla parte rotonda del Pantheon, come si ravvisa alle lett. DG, BG, H, dalla medesima costruttura sciolta da quella del Tempio. I Parte dell’acroterio interrotta col frontespizio K sotto il Pontificato d’Urbano VIII per ridurre le parti CE, L, in forma di torri ad uso de’ Campanili. MN Circonferenza della finestra, per cui scende il lume nel tempio. O Colonne solide di marmo Sienite di palmi 6.6. di diametro, e di 63.8. d’altezza. 2, e 3 Canali e forami ne’ quali erano incastrate le lettere di metallo della iscrizione d’Agrippa. P Iscrizione degl’Imperadori L. Settimio Severo, e Caracalla restauratori del Pantheon. Q Una delle pietre con forami a’ quali anticamente raccomandavansi le corde della tenda che si spiegava per le solennità. RS Angolo del portico rifabbricato sotto il Pontificato d’Alessandro VII. T Gradi moderni. V Avanzi degli ornamenti di stucco de’ quali era rivestita la circonferenza del Pantheon. XY Cornici ove si ravvisano alcune porzioni degli stucchi che coprivano e adornavano l’odierna rozzezza delle medesime.
Piranesi’s view of the Pantheon represents a shift in the way that he engaged with the ancient monuments of Rome. Previous studies made for the Antichità Romane focused on particular aspects of the portico, interior and exterior - which he repeats later on in the Vedute too - but the composition of this print demonstrates a more sophisticated approach that is evidence of the extent to which Piranesi was familiar with the role of archaeological sites in the modern city. Unlike in the Antichità, where archaeological material is presented in precise detail, but detached from the contemporary context in which it has been found, here Piranesi devotes the entire plate to the ancient structure, with the buildings of modern Rome hinted at as framing devices around it. Like Vasi’s print of the Pantheon (Stanford University Imago Urbis), Piranesi notes the sociability of the space through the groups of people that congregate between the columns and in the foreground of the print, as well as the tourists climbing on the dome, but his primary focus in the print is on the ancient building, its scale, and balancing the vast amount of archaeological information that could be communicated with the recent additions that had turned it from ancient temple to church. Relieving arches are visible in the brickwork of the exterior of the rotunda, as are the irregular holes in the triangular pediment from where ancient bronze decoration was ripped out following its conversion into church in the seventh century AD. The huge dome is depicted here at an unrealistic angle so that it can be seen in its entirety, which is not possible when standing in front of it at the distance Piranesi’s view suggests. These ancient structural features are balanced by the inclusion of the metal grilles between the columns and the bell towers, probably added by Carlo Maderno in 1628. In his previous studies of the Pantheon’s exterior, Piranesi had sought to crop out these bell towers in order to show off the ancient form of the building, but by the time of this Veduta, he had established a way of looking at the ancient monuments of the city through the modifications that later inhabitants had made to them.
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP19-139
Catalogo delle Opere (1761) no. 60
Focillon no.
Hind (1922) no.
Wilton-Ely no. 193
Bibliography
James, K.A. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 60, pp. 89-90.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Veduta del Pantheon d’Agrippa oggi Chiesa di S. Maria ad Martyres. Author(s) of this publication: Caroline Barron. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=7. Date visited:
Veduta, nella via del Corso, del Palazzo dell’Accademia …
[created between 1751 and 1761, this print after 1761]
Caption continues:
… istituita da Luigi XIV. Re di Francia per i Nazionali Francesi studiosi della Pittura, Scultura, e Architettura; colla liberal permissione al Pubblico di esercitarvisi in tali arti per il comodo della esposizione quotidiana del Nudo, e dei Modelli delle più rare Statue ed altri segni della Romana Magnificenza, sì antichi, che moderni. 1. Stanze ove sono esposti i modelli della Colonna Trajana, Statue Equestri e Pedestri, Busti, e Bassirilievi. 2. Stanze per l'esposizione del Nudo. 3. Appartamento Regio ornato parimente di Modelli. 4. Appartamento del Signor Direttore. 5. Palazzo Panfilj. 6. Via del Corso. 7. Porta del Popolo.
Piranesi had created a print of Palazzo Mancini for the Varie vedute di Roma antica, e moderna disegnate e intagliate da celebri autori… published in 1748. He revisits the building here, not because the architecture - the major architectural contribution was by Carlo Rainaldi, from 1662 - is of particular interest to him but because, since the 1720s, it had been home to the Académie de France, the most significant foreign academy in the city. This was first set up under Louis XIV in 1666. Piranesi had a close association with the students and teachers of the Academy in the 1750s and 1760s, primarily those of the painter Gian Paolo Panini, the professor of perspective. It was also his neighbouring palace, his early prints are sometimes captioned: “presso l’autore dirimpetto l’Academia di Franzia”. The artistic and didactic functions of the Academy were naturally of great interest to Piranesi and therefore they occupy most of the detailed caption, here translated: “[the academy was] instituted by Louis XIV King of France for the French national students of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture; with liberal permission for the public to practise these arts, for facilitating the daily life-drawing classes and for the housing of models [casts] of the rarest statues and other signs of Roman Magnificence, both ancient and modern.”
Piranesi labels specific parts of the palace such as the rooms where the casts of Trajan’s Column were kept alongside those of other “Statues, Busts and Bas-reliefs”. Under no. 2 he labels the life class rooms and also mentions the apartments of the Director, who in the 1750s was the painter Charles Natoire, on the second floor in the centre of the building. Piranesi’s composition has characteristic tonal drama, with bold angular shadows cast across the palace by the buildings on the western side of the Corso leaving patches of sunlight on the road that act as theatrical spotlights for some of the passersby. The perspective thrust pushes the eye to the minuscule Porta del Popolo at the far end of the road while the foreground activity features workmen moving large wooden poles and in the road is a larger than life human figure stretched out on a plank resting on logs with a group of men gathered around it. This is no doubt a sculpture being transported into the Academy - apparently a bronze since there is no base under the feet. The rather mysterious scene would not be out of place in one of his contemporary Carceri d’Invenzione prints.
Vasi’s comparable print does not show the coat of arms (also missing from the small Piranesi view of the 1740s) and he has moved the palazzo further down the via del Corso in order to place it directly on the corner of Piazza di Venezia (Stanford University Imago Urbis).
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP18-131
Catalogo delle Opere no. 24
Focillon no. 739
Hind (1922) no. 24 II
Wilton-Ely no. 177
Bibliography
Bevilacqua, M. (2004) in Nolli Vasi Piranesi: immagini di Roma antica e moderna. Roma: Artemide, p. 27.
Taylor, M. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 49, pp. 80-81.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
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Veduta, nella via del Corso, del Palazzo dell’Accademia … Author(s) of this publication: Clare Hornsby. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-print-june-2023/?slide=8 Date visited:
Veduta del Palazzo Odescalchi
[created pre 1751, this print after 1761]
Caption:
1 Palazzo Colonna. 2. Basilica de' SS. XII Apostoli. 3. Convento de' PP. Minor. Conventuali. 4. Palazzo Muti. 5. Convento de' PP. Serviti di S. Marcello. 6. Piazza de' SS. Apostoli.
Piranesi takes this view from the southern end of the elongated open space that extends from Palazzo Muti at the north, (his no. 4) - the residence of the Stuarts, pretenders to the British throne - to Palazzo Bonelli at the south. This is the opposite direction to the view made by Vasi of the same palace. As was common practice amongst veduta artists, the area in the foreground has been expanded in the view in order to include the facade of Palazzo Colonna, which is cast in deep shadow. Beyond it, also on the right of the image is the Basilica de’ Santi Apostoli. Piranesi has taken liberties with the architectural details of the Odescalchi palace, emphasising in his foreground the original Berninian aspect of the bays of the grand double-height pilastered facade and placing coats of arms above each of the matching entrance portals and four across the cornice of the central body of the building. These coats of arms are not seen in the Vasi print (Stanford University Imago Urbis).
The long facade is made lively by detailed drawing of the architectural details, especially the windows, some of which are open with figures looking out. Sunlight and shadow cast by the building across the street add another level of visual animation. The contrasts of light and shadow in the print are paired with the contrasting types of staffage; on the right, in the shadow of the Palazzo Colonna, are the mundane rear views of oxen carrying large loads of hay, while in the sunlit centre ground near the Odescalchi palace are a group consisting of elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen. Between them stand two rather bizarre, grotesque, Commedia dell’Arte type figures, recalling once again the Venetian tradition that had much influence on the figures to be seen both in Piranesi’s vedute but also in the inhabitants of his Carceri d’Invenzione.
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP18-132
Catalogo delle Opere no. 26
Focillon no. 741
Hind (1922) no. 26 II
Wilton-Ely no. 178
Bibliography
Taylor, M. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 50, pp. 81-82.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Veduta di Palazzo Odescalchi: Author(s) of this publication: Clare Hornsby. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-june-2023/?slide=9 Date visited:
Colonna Trajana
[created pre 1751, this print after 1761]
Caption:
1. Bucca fatta scavare da Sisto V. con recinto di muro, e Scala, che discende al piano della Colonna. 2. Chiesa del Nome di Maria. 3. Palazzo Bonelli.
Created possibly as a pendant print to the Colonna Antonina (see TA[PRI]-GBP16-115), this image depicts the Column of Trajan, erected in 113 AD to commemorate his victory over the Dacian tribes in modern Romania. Like the Antonine Column, its spiral frieze depicts the different campaigns and its original inscription gave details of the 100 Roman feet of hillside that was cleared in order for the column to be built. Piranesi’s print provides a rather inaccurate impression of access to this pedestal; he notes in the caption (1) that the excavation was ordered by Pope Sixtus V in order to give access to the base, but the composition of the print suggests a significant opening, at odds with the smaller cavity indicated by Vasi view of the piazza as a whole (Stanford University Imago Urbis).
Little more is known about the archaeological work ordered by Sixtus V, but Piranesi appears to have had some familiarity with it as it is mentioned on several occasions in the Vedute captions. The column takes up almost the full vertical height of the print and is depicted in an unusually dark tone; the depth of shade is emphasised by Piranesi’s otherwise ambiguous use of light and dark in the shadows of other structures whose muted tones are not consonant with the reality of the shade they should cast. As in Vasi’s print, Piranesi has included the church of SS. Nome di Maria on the right hand side of the composition, with its recently-completed facade (designed by his friend, the Frenchman Antoine Dérizet and consecrated in 1741) in dialogue with the ancient column, in a further example of Piranesi’s exploration of how the ancient and modern cities interacted with each other. This dialogue is emphasised through the postures of the statues that top both the column and the church’s balustrade; the statue of St Paul, placed on top of the column by Pope Sixtus V, gestures towards the statues of evangelicals and prophets above the door of the church, who appear almost to mirror his own pose back to him. The dialogue is between the ancient and contemporary monuments of the city, between pagan and Christian iconography and between Piranesi and his viewer, who is asked to follow his guide in determining the focal point of the print according to his manipulation of light and shade.
BSR no. TA[PRI]-GBP16-114
Catalogo delle Opere (1761) no. 51
Focillon no. 849
Hind (1922) no. 51
Wilton-Ely no. 150
Bibliography
Weinstein, A. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 18, p. 57.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Colonna Trajana. Author(s) of this publication: Caroline Barron. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=10 Date visited:
Veduta del Tempio di Antonino e Faustina in Campo Vaccino
[created pre 1751, this print after 1761]
Caption:
S. Lorenzo in Miranda de’ Speciali.
Just as in the previous print, Piranesi again uses exaggerated shading and tone to establish a dialogue between ancient and modern Rome. The structure depicted is the Temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina, in the Roman Forum; the temple had been dedicated to Faustina, his wife, upon her death and deification in 141 AD, and it was rededicated to them as a pair following his death twenty years later. By the eleventh century AD the structure had been reconsecrated as the church of S. Lorenzo in Miranda, whose Baroque facade was added in 1602. Today, the lofty foundations of the original temple and the steep staircase constructed in the Middle Ages up to the cella are visible, but in Piranesi’s and Vasi’s day (Stanford University Imago Urbis) the ground level in the Forum had risen such that the bases of the enormous cipollino marble columns were entirely buried and the church was accessed through the temple’s bronze doors, almost twenty metres above the ancient level. Piranesi distinguishes between these pagan and Christian structures by means of light; the columns, architrave and cella of the temple are heavily delineated with the shadows and light contrasting from top to bottom, while the fabric of the church and surrounding buildings are depicted with greater tonal coherence. Piranesi’s message here is clear, and it is confirmed by the different numbers attributed to each in the caption: these are two separate structures, representative of two different interests and intentions.
BSR no. TA[PRI]-GBP17-122
Catalogo delle Opere (1761) no. 49
Focillon no. 802
Hind (1922) no. 49
Wilton-Ely no. 163
Bibliography
Solomon, S. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 24, pp. 61-62.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Veduta del Tempio di Antonino e Faustina in Campo Vaccino. Author(s) of this publication: Caroline Barron. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-june-2023/?slide=11 Date visited:
Veduta del Tempio della Fortuna virile
[created pre 1751, this print after 1761]
Caption:
Oggi S. Maria Egizziaca degli Armeni. 1. Residui d’un’antica Fabrica chiamata dal Volgo la Casa di Pilato. 2. Ospizio della Nazione Armena. 3. Tempio di Vesta: oggi S. Maria del Sole, vicino a questo Tempio sbocca nel Tevere la Cloaca massima. 4. S. Maria in Cosmedin detta la Scola Greca. 5. Monte Aventino, sotto al quale si vedono i vestigj della Spelonca di Cacco.
This veduta of the Temple of Fortuna Virilis (formerly dedicated as the Temple of Portunus) is somewhat unfamiliar to the modern viewer, due to the twentieth century excavations that have cleared so much of the space of the Forum Boarium, the ancient cattle market on the banks of the Tiber and restorations which have removed the majority of the modern additions to the ancient buildings that are visible here. The main focus of the view is the temple, whose Ionic columns are visible in the side wall of the church of S. Maria Egiziaca degli Armeni, which was built into it and consecrated in the sixteenth century and which served the Armenian congregation of Rome. The smaller building, drawn in lighter tones behind the temple, was their pilgrim hospice. To the right of the print, with its deeply shaded fluting of the columns, stands the second century BC round Temple of Hercules Victor, which in Piranesi’s day housed the church of S. Maria del Sole. In the background of the print is the faint outline of the eighteenth century facade and mediaeval tower of S. Maria in Cosmedin, built over the Temple of Ceres. Ancient architectural fragments scatter the foreground of the print, some of which appear to be the focus of discussion amongst a small group of figures in the centre. Each structure shown in the print represents a link between contemporary Rome and her antique origins, as well as the early Christian history of the ancient monuments that were adopted throughout the city for worship. (Stanford University Imago Urbis).
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP17-121
Catalogo delle Opere (1761) no. 46
Focillon no. 817
Hind (1922) no. 46
Wilton-Ely no. 162
Bibliography
Wojtowicz, R. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 32, pp. 67-68.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Veduta del Tempio della Fortuna Virile. Author(s) of this publication: Caroline Barron. Hornsby. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=12 Date visited:
Veduta dell’Atrio del Portico di Ottavia
[created pre 1751, this print after 1761]
Caption:
1. S. Angelo in Pescaria. 2. Interno dell’Atrio. 3. Tavoloni di marmo, che coprivano l’Atrio, sopra cadaun de’ quali si scorge in piede un pezzo di marmo intagliato di un’Aquila in basso rilevo. 4. Pitture moderne.
Vasi’s print of the Piazza di Pescaria, the modern fish market housed in the ancient Portico d’Ottavia in the heart of the Jewish Ghetto, is a rather sanitised rendering of what was one of eighteenth century Rome’s most crowded and overgrown spaces (Stanford University Imago Urbis).
His neat depiction contains little of the sense of activity and vegetation that invades Piranesi’s image. Piranesi’s print depicts the ancient arch and engaged Corinthian pilasters of what was once a monumental colonnaded portico that surrounded an open space, modelled on a Greek agora, that was constructed in the second century BC to surround two existing temples to Juno Regina and Jupiter Stator. Although traditionally misunderstood to have been dedicated by the emperor Augustus (who rebuilt the portico between 27-23 BC) for his sister Octavia, the original portico was dedicated by the military general Gnaeus Octavius, who was consul in 165 BC and who funded its construction following a period of time in Greece as legate during the Third Macedonian War. By the eighteenth century, the portico had been absorbed into numerous residential and commercial edifices, as Piranesi’s print makes clear; the ruins are overgrown with weeds and plants, and stalls can be seen in the left foreground. The dark shadowing of the archway hints at the melancholic and secluded nature of the Jewish Ghetto, the Rione Sant’Angelo, which had been closed off by Pope Paul IV in 1555, and whose occupants were still restricted in Piranesi’s day to ‘unskilled’ activities, such as secondhand dealers, rag merchants and fishmongers.
BSR no. TA[PRI]-GBP17-124
Catalogo delle Opere (1761) no. 58
Focillon no. 815
Hind (1922) no. 58
Wilton-Ely no. 166
Bibliography
Wojtowicz, R. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 33, p. 68.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Veduta dell'Atrio del Portico di Ottavia. Author(s) of this publication: Caroline Barron. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=13 Date visited:
Veduta interna dell’Atrio del Portico di Ottavia
[created pre 1751, this print after 1761]
Caption:
1. Due Frontespizj interiori del detto Portico. 2. Arco, che sostiene il Frontespizio fatto per ristauro da Settimio Severo dopo l'incendio in luogo delle due Colonne, che lo reggevano. 3. Colonne inferiori all'Atrio mezzo coperte nel muro con altri avanzi nelle cantine, le quali sostenevano i lati del Portico: oggi Pescaria.
The location of this scene is inside the entrance or propylaea of the vast Portico ordered by Octavian in honour of his sister, in its Severan reconstruction; these ruined structural elements are still standing today and the area behind the back of the viewer has been further excavated.
The captions point out to the left and right the “due frontespizi” (no. 1), the supporting arch inserted in the outer one added in the restoration under Septimus Severus (no. 2) and no. 3 - the numeral barely visible in the wall below the lean-to roof - indicates the two interior frontispiece columns, partially embedded within later brick walls. The concentration is therefore clearly on the antiquity of the structure and its semi-ruinous state. The contrasts between the various building materials - travertine, marble and brick for the infill and sustaining arches gives a great variety of tone to the image, exploited even further by the addition of deep shadows cast by the raking afternoon light across the surfaces, including the luxuriant growth of plants emerging from masonry cracks. There is a particularly notable case of the diagonal perspective and exaggerated distance that Piranesi commonly liked to include in his views. The vico di Pescheria (now via del Portico d’Ottavia) visible through the arch in the foreground on the left is indicated by a glimpse of the houses that flank it, drawn in a coherent scale to that of the Portico. Through the arch on the right however, a seemingly endless straight street is visible, crowded with many small figures, all diminishing with the perspective. In reality, the gently curving street of via S. Angelo in Pescheria is relatively short.
There is a sense in which Piranesi is presenting a glimpse into the ancient past down this street, while the foreground presents clearly the ruins and fishmarket squalor of the contemporary city.
There is a comparable Vasi print of the exterior of the portico (see TA[PRI]-GBP17-124) but not the interior.
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP17-125
Catalogo delle Opere no. 59
Focillon no. 816
Hind (1922) no. 59 III
Wilton-Ely no. 167
Bibliography
Wojtowicz, R. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 33, p. 68.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
How to quote this page:
Veduta interna dell'Atrio del Portico di Ottavia. Author(s) of this publication: Clare Hornsby. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=14 Date visited:
Veduta della Piazza di Monte Cavallo
[created pre 1751, this print after 1761]
Caption:
1. Palazzo Pontificio. 2. Palazzo della Famiglia Pontificia. 3. Statue Colossali rappresentanti Alessandro che doma il Bucefalo opere di Prasitelle, e Fidia Scultori Greci. 4. Quartiere de' Soldati, e Scuderia Pontificia. 5. Palazzo Rospigliosi.
The sun setting behind Monte Mario in the distance and the soaring twin sculptural groups of the horse tamers (referred to by Piranesi in his caption as Alexander taming Bucephalus, an alternative opinion at the time) dominate the composition, leaving the pontifical (now presidential) palace on the extreme right. The irregular nature of the area, the western outcrop of the Quirinal hill, is highlighted by the depiction of the uneven ground level; Piranesi’s antiquarian preoccupation is visible in the inclusion of more ancient architectural remnants from the site, the location of the Baths of Constantine and Temple of Serapis (one of these structures being the original location of the colossal statues). In the shadow of one of the exaggeratedly high bases, inscribed with the names of the classical Greek sculptors Phidias and Praxiteles, figures of visitors gesture to the left, as if looking at the view over the edge of the hill towards Trajan’s column. Piranesi’s viewpoint would have been the front of the Palazzo della Consulta, itself the subject of a veduta (see no. 17 in this exhibition). On the left are the Scuderie and papal infantry are drawn up nearby while several elegant carriages in the piazza are shown arriving or leaving the papal palace. Vasi, by contrast adopts his usual “mid-air” viewpoint, placing himself opposite the papal palace, giving a clear view of the buildings on the three sides of the piazza. The obelisk now in situ above the fountains was added in 1786, brought here from outside the Mausoleum of Augustus by pope Pius VI. Vasi’s print was adjusted later to include this (Stanford University Imago Urbis).
There is a later Piranesi view of the piazza, dating from 1773, taken from a high point of view, similar to that of Vasi, looking down on the sculptures from behind. (This is Wilton-Ely no. 236, Istituto Centrale per la Grafica).
BSR no. TA[PRI]-GBP14-110
Catalogo delle Opere no. 15
Focillon no. 808
Hind (1922) no. 15 III
Wilton-Ely no. 142
Bibliography
Shell, O. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 7, pp. 48-49.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Veduta della Piazza di Monte Cavallo. Author(s) of this publication: Clare Hornsby. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=15 Date visited:
Veduta del Palazzo fabbricato sul Quirinale per le Segreterie de Brevi e della Sacra Consulta. Architettura del Cavalier Ferdinando Fuga
[created between 1751 and 1761, this print after 1761]
Caption:
1. Corpo di Guardia de’ Cavaleggieri. 2. Corpo di Guardia de’ Corazieri. 3. Palazzo Apostolico. 4. Corpo di Guardia de’ Soldati Rossi. 5. Palazzo del Sig.r Principe Rospigliosi. 6. Monastero e Chiesa di S. Maria Madalena. 7. Porta Pia sulle mura Urbane.
This view depicts a recently completed palace in Rome, the Palazzo della Consulta, designed by Ferdinando Fuga for Pope Clement XII in 1737. It was built to house the Consulta, the group responsible for the civil and judicial administration of the city. The building also housed the papal horseguards, its dual purpose described architecturally by its two storeys; the upper storey for the cardinals of the Consulta, and the lower for the horseguards. The facade is very similar in style to the Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi designed by Bernini, with the rusticated ground floor supporting a tall row of pilasters in the upper storey. Fuga’s design balanced the proportions of the two storeys, however, to make them of equal height, which gives the structure a more harmonious and symmetrical quality. The facade is rich in architectural detail, with rocaille ornament (shell-like, scrolled motifs often used in the eighteenth century) in the semi-circular pediments above the second-storey windows, sculpted figures over the entrance and balustrade, and its heavy rusticated corners. The architect, Fuga, who was also responsible for the facade of S. Maria Maggiore, is named prominently in the subtitle of the print, in recognition of his status as Rome’s most significant architect of the 1720s-1740s.
The print is typical of Piranesi’s palace view compositions: the building itself is depicted on a diagonal, with raking light highlighting the architectural details. The proportions of the piazza in front of it have been altered to give a view up the via del Quirinale. The surrounding buildings - the monastery and church of S. Maria Madalena on the left, and the Palazzo Rospigliosi on the right - are intended to be subsidiary framing devices, drawn with less detail and smaller in scale, in order to emphasise the rich grandeur of the Consulta’s facade. Perhaps most unusual in this print is Piranesi’s exclusion of the statues of the Dioscuri, the equestrian statues that had stood in the piazza since 1588, decorating the fountain commissioned by Pope Sixtus V. From the vantage point described here by Piranesi, they would certainly have been visible, but they have been left out in order for Piranesi to draw our attention to the Consulta as a point of important intersection in the city, as well as a place of significant civic activity. (Stanford University Imago Urbis).
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP18-129
Catalogo delle Opere (1761) no. 22
Focillon no. 727
Hind (1922) no. 22
Wilton-Ely no. 175
Bibliography
Taylor, M. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 48, pp. 79-80.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Veduta del Palazzo fabbricato sul Quirinale per le Segreterie de Brevi e della Sacra Consulta. Architettura del Cavalier Ferdinando Fuga. Author(s) of this publication: Caroline Barron. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=16 Date visited:
Veduta sul Monte Quirinale del Palazzo dell’Eccellentissima Casa Barberini,
Architettura del Cav.r Bernino
[created pre- 1751, this print after 1761]
Caption:
1. Ponte levatojo, che dal vestibolo superiore dà l'ingresso al Secondo Appartamento del Palazzo. 2. Iscrizione dell'Arco di Claudio ritrovata fra le di lui rovine alla Piazza di Sciarra, e dinotante le Vittorie riportate da questo Imperadore sopra i Britanni. 3. Uno de’ Portoni del Vestibolo, corrispondente alla Piazza Barberini. 4. Chiesa de’ Cappuccini. 5. Labro antico di granito, che serve alla fontana del Vestibolo inferiore. 6. Obelisco Egizziaco, ivi trasferito dal Circo d'Elagabalo, o come altri vogliono d'Aureliano, che rimaneva fuori dell'odierna Porta Magg.e.
The longish caption to this print enumerates some of the interesting antiquities that were to be found at Palazzo Barberini in Piranesi’s time, most notable is the obelisk, now in the Pincio gardens, which was perhaps ordered by Hadrian to decorate the memorial of his lover Antinous at Villa Adriana; Heliogabalus had it moved to the Circo Variano, close to Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, where it stood on the spina. It bears hieroglyphics of Roman creation referring to Antinous; these are not accurately reproduced by Piranesi here. In the etching it dominates the dark foreground, lying broken in several pieces. The vast bulk of the Barberini palace - architects involved included Carlo Maderno, Gianlorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini - fills the image, its elevated location on the northern slope of the Quirinal hill is emphasised by the glimpse on the left of the print of the very top of the entrance portal to the palace gardens located on Piazza Barberini in the valley below. Piranesi gives credit only to “Cavalier” Bernini in the title, emphasising his prestige as the favourite artist of the large and wealthy papal family of Urban VIII. The building’s wall surfaces, with the two projecting wings, are animated not only by its many windows and cornices but also by an almost theatrical placing of patches of light and shade; on the right a “spotlight” - perhaps raking evening light thrown through the opening archway on to the strada Felice (now via Quattro Fontane) - dramatically illuminates a figure holding a theatrical mask. The Vasi view shows the palace from the north, rising above the piazza. He also includes the obelisk, but removes it from its actual location in the gardens next to the palace to the foreground of his print. (Stanford University Imago Urbis).
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP19-137
Catalogo delle Opere no. 25
Focillon no. 740
Hind (1922) no. 25 II
Wilton-Ely no. 188
Bibliography
Taylor, M. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 53, pp. 84-85.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Veduta sul Monte Quirinale del Palazzo dell’Eccellentissima Casa Barberini, Architettura del Cav.r Bernino. Author(s) of this publication: Clare Hornsby. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=17 Date visited:
Veduta del Castello dell’Acqua Felice presso le Terme Diocleziane
[created between 1751 and 1761, this print after 1761]
Caption:
1. Chiesa di S. Maria della Vittoria.
This fountain is more commonly known as a mostra (terminal display) of the Acqua Felice aqueduct built under Sixtus V Peretti (1585-1590), which was inaugurated as celebrated in the inscription, in 1587. The pope had bought up much of the land in this outlying and semi-rural part of city, creating a huge park around his Villa Peretti (now disappeared, the location of the Roma Termini station) and repaired the aqueduct, bringing a reliable water supply to the area for the first time since antiquity. Piranesi concentrates in this image, one of the later of his views, on the perspective diagonal of the composition where the frontage of the fountain is adorned by the famous basalt Nectambeo lions from the Iseum Campense (now in the Vatican, replaced on site by copies). The unpopular statue of Moses remains partially hidden by the central niche of the triumphal arch inspired structure, the top-heavy design was provided by Sixtus’s architect Domenico Fontana.
Piranesi also makes the inscription clearly legible:
SIXTUS V PONT. MAX. PICENUS
AQUAM EX AGRO COLUMNAE
VIA PRAENEST. SINISTRORSUM
MULTAR COLLECTIONE VENARUM
DUCTU SINUOSO A RECEPTACULO
MIL XX A CAPITE XXII ADDUXIT
FELICEMQUE DE NOMINE ANTE PONT. DIXIT
[Pope Sixtus V [originating from the] Piceno, from the Colonna countryside on the left of the Via Prenestina, collected water from many springs from the twentieth to the twenty-first mile, through a winding conduit and named it Felice after the name he had before he became pontiff].
The centre of the image emphasises the facade of the early seventeenth century Scipione Borghese sponsored church of Santa Maria della Vittoria and to its left a road leads steeply downhill, thus emphasising the topography of the area. To the right of the fountain Piranesi includes a window (still in situ) and the heavily rusticated monumental entrance to the pre-existing Vigna Panzani (now moved to the nearby museum of the Terme di Diocleziano). His usual local staffage suspects are loitering on the steps while a guide points out the fountain to what appears to be a group of visitors. Vasi’s print of the area places the adjacent church of Santa Susanna in the foreground and alters the spatial relationship between the three structures, the fountain is less significant and the sense of the hillside location is lost (Stanford University Imago Urbis).
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP19-136
Catalogo delle Opere no. 20
Focillon no. 735
Hind (1922) no. 20 II
Wilton-Ely no. 187
Bibliography
Shell, O. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 56, p. 86.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Veduta del Castello dell’Acqua Felice presso le Terme Diocleziane. Author(s) of this publication: Clare Hornsby. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=18 Date visited:
Obelisco Egizio
[created pre- 1751, this print after 1761]
Caption:
Questo fu eretto da Sisto V. nella Piazza di S. Gio. Laterano. 1. Palazzo fabricato da Sisto V. ora Conservatorio di Zitelle. 2. Scala Santa. 3. Rovine di Acquedotti antichi.
This print of the ‘Lateranensis’ obelisk, discovered in the Circus Maximus by Domenico Fontana in 1587 and erected in front of the Basilica of S. Giovanni in Laterano on the orders of Pope Sixtus V, is one of Piranesi’s most unusual images. The obelisk - created for the Temple of Ammon at Thebes in the fifteenth century BC - is depicted in the centre of the print and fills almost the full height of the page, with the Lateran Palace and Scala Santa in the background. The ruins of the Aqua Claudia aqueduct can be seen to the left. Unlike Vasi’s view (Stanford University Imago Urbis), which presents the piazza as a papal procession would enter it, with the transept entrance and facade facing the viewer as they approach from the centre of the city, Piranesi’s print offers just an excerpt of that space. The obelisk dominates the scene, with mere hints of the palace’s structure offered at its edges, creating a dependence on the viewer’s familiarity with the monument for its identification. The background is filled with varied formations of clouds, whose juxtaposition with the bold, perpendicular rendering of the obelisk and buildings creates an uneasy spaciousness that emphasises its vertical scale. Piranesi has paid attention to the inscription of the obelisk, blurring reality and accuracy with his typically expressive approach to inscribed text; only the hieroglyphs at the top and bottom of the obelisk are correctly rendered, with the majority of its shaft covered with the suggestion of symbols, rather than an accurate recording.
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP17-123
Catalogo delle Opere (1761) no. 53
Focillon no. 800
Hind (1922) no. 53
Wilton-Ely no. 164
Bibliography
Williams, R.B. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 25, p. 62.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Obelisco Egizio. Author(s) of this publication: Caroline Barron. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=19 Date visited:
Veduta della Basilica di S. Giovanni Laterano Architettura di Alessandro Gallilei
[created pre 1751, this print after 1761]
Caption:
1. Cappella fabricata da Clemente XII Corsini. 2. Palazzo fabricato da Sisto V. ora Conser. di Zitelle. 3. Scala Santa. 4. Guglia Egiziaca giacente. 5. Mura della Citta.
The first of his “Grandi Vedute” to be created were views that Piranesi made which focussed on the major papal basilicas of Rome. This view of the ancient (c. 300 AD) cathedral of Rome, located at the eastern edge of the city, highlights the facade that had recently been added to the refurbished structure in 1773-5 by Alessandro Galilei. The fact that the architect’s name is mentioned in the caption - and his Cappella Corsini (another commission of pope Clement XII Corsini) is noted (no. 1) - suggests a Piranesian seal of approval for these designs. In the eighteenth century the area around was largely villas and gardens; to the right of the Lateran palace - cast somewhat into the shade by Piranesi’s focus on the basilica’s facade - we can see the walls of the Villa Giustiniani and the open ground leading to Santa Maria Maggiore. Adjacent to this is the “obelisco giacente”, (which also appears on Nolli’s map), now erected in front of the church of Trinità dei Monti. Piranesi’s view has a dramatic diagonal composition, highlighting the facade; his focus is made even clearer when comparing with the Giuseppe Vasi image - (Stanford University Imago Urbis)
- where the buildings are presented from a high level viewpoint and thus appear less imposing.
In the early 1760s Piranesi was commissioned by Clement XIII to provide new designs for the high altar and tribune of this basilica, work that was never undertaken although several drawings relating to the project survive. Late in his career, in 1775 he made a second view of the basilica (Wilton-Ely no. 175, Istituto Centrale per la Grafica)
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP14-108
Catalogo delle Opere no. 8
Focillon no. 790
Hind (1922) no. 8 III
Wilton-Ely no. 139
Bibliography
Wiles, S. (1994) in Exploring Rome, Piranesi and his contemporaries. New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, nos. 30, 31, 32, pp. 48-51.
Williams, R.B. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 4, p. 45.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
How to quote this page:
Veduta della Basilica di S. Giovanni Laterano Architettura di Alessandro Gallilei. Author(s) of this publication: Clare Hornsby. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=20 Date visited:
Veduta del Castello dell’Acqua Paola sul Monte Aureo
[created between 1751 and 1761, this print after 1761]
Caption:
1. Casino Farnese. 2. Basilica di S. Pietro in Vaticano. 3. Casino e Orto Botanico. 4. Avanzo delle Mura urbane dell’Imperadore Aureliano.
This print is one of Piranesi’s most creative expressions of space in the Vedute series; by altering proportions and converging viewpoints, he is able to include the fountain of the Acqua Paola - the focal point of the print - as well as the Casino Farnese (now replaced by the Villa Aurelia), the Aurelian Wall and also the dome of St Peter’s basilica in the background. The fountain extends just into the frame of the print, which has the effect of detaching it from its environment, with its strong diagonal line drawing attention to the faintly indicated dome of St Peter’s on the right hand side. It has been suggested that this is a deliberate composition, linking the image of papal authority, represented by the dome, with the notion of papal benefaction, represented by the fountain; the Acqua Paola was constructed between 1611 and 1612 under Pope Paul V, for whom, as a Borghese Pope, the emblems of the family - griffons and eagles - were included in its ornament. The fountain was just one part of a much larger urban building project begun by Paul V, which sought to bring water from the lake at Bracciano to the city, following the line of an aqueduct constructed by the emperor Trajan, which was almost entirely rebuilt. The fountain represented the papal project, announcing the arrival of the water into the city. For Piranesi, the Acqua Paola print is in direct conversation with his veduta of the Acqua Felice (see TA[PRI]-GBP19-136); the Acqua Paola fountain represented a bigger endeavour, the structure larger by the addition of two bays as compared with the Acqua Felice, giving it the form of a triumphal arch. Its austere monumentality is achieved by limiting the ornamentation to the Borghese family symbols - there are no statues to distract the eye. The inclusion of groups of people in the foreground of the print emphasise the success of the project - the fountain was for the benefit of the Roman people, who are depicted here by Piranesi celebrating its arrival.
(Stanford University Imago Urbis).
BSR: TA[PRI]-GBP18-128
Catalogo delle Opere (1761) no. 21
Focillon no. 736
Hind (1922) no. 21
Wilton-Ely no. 174
Bibliography
Shell, O.S. (1990) in Piranesi, Rome recorded: a complete edition of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation. 2nd edn. Rome: American Academy in Rome, no. 41, pp. 73-74.
Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali.
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica.
How to quote this page:
Veduta del Castello dell’Acqua Paola sul Monte Aureo. Author(s) of this publication: Caroline Barron. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=21 Date visited:
Parte della Facciata del Sepolcro di Cecilia Metella cogli Ornamenti, che in oggi esistono, from Antichità Romane, volume III, plate L
[1756-1757]
Caption:
A Linea di punti, la quale dimostra il mezzo della Facciata. B Iscrizione di marmo, nella quale osservansi le Lettere nell’antica loro forma, e la Cornicetta, che le rinchiude, la quale per essere molto gentile, lascia campeggiar bene le medesime, e tutti gli altri Fregj, che magnificam.te adornano questo nobilissimo sepolcrale Monum.to. C Architrave fregiato di marmo, in cui sonovi scolpiti in basso rilievo de’ Teschj di Bove, che sostengono de’ Festoni composti di varie frondi, e frutti con delle Patere negli spazj sopra de’ Festoni medesimi disposte. Vedesi ancora un Trofeo innalzato con sotto uno schiavo, legato ad un tronco, e poco distante l'avanzo di una Figura rappresentante forse una Vittoria. Notasi in questo Architrave, che l’Orlo inferiore verso il mezzo licenziosam.te discende sino alla linea del primo Corso di Travertini. La qual licenza contraria alle buone regole da moderni più accreditati Architetti è stata imitata, come fosse una grazia dell’Architettura, e come tale oggi giorno ciecam.te si usa non solo nelle private Fabbriche, ma ancora nei più sontuosi publici Edifizj. D Cornicione, composto di lunghi Travertini a cuneo, internati nel masso. La Gola rovescia, la quale si vede sopra l’Orlo superiore dell’Architrave, sembra essere troppo greve, ma considerato il tutto insieme, può dirsi fatta a bella posta, acciò bene si unisca allo spazioso piano dell’Architrave fregiato medesimo. E Rovine del Masso.
This print, from volume II of Le Antichità Romane, depicts the dedicatory inscription and ornamental frieze from the Tomb of Caecilia Metella, one of the via Appia’s most impressive funerary monuments. As is typical of his recording of archaeological material, here Piranesi has stripped away any references to the mediaeval additions that turned the tomb and the land it stood on into a castrum, or fortified camp, in the early fourteenth century. The image depicts the archaeology faithfully; the circular drum is partially represented with the blocks of travertine facing on its exterior clearly visible. Rather than including the mediaeval structure that was later added to the drum, Piranesi instead removes them and replaces them with vegetation and plants occupying the ruined spaces. The deep, diagonal shadow that runs across the left hand corner of the print draws attention to the inscription, which translates as: “To Caecilia Metella, daughter of Quintus Creticus, [and wife] of Crassus.” Caecilia Metella was the daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus, the consul of 69 BC, and the wife of Marcus Licinius Crassus, who shared in the first triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Pompeius Magnus in 59 BC. Above the dedicatory inscription is a frieze of garlands and bulls heads (bucrania), from which the area took its name “Capo di Bove” (head of the oxen). The tombs of the via Appia were a particular project for Piranesi, who recorded hundreds of inscriptions from them in this volume of Le Antichità; a huge amount of activity to recover these inscriptions was taking place in the first half of the eighteenth century, to which Piranesi was witness. His recording of their texts placed him firmly in an antiquarian tradition that had prioritised inscriptions since the twelfth century, but Piranesi’s commitment to recording the accurate materiality of the texts was relatively innovative and established a new approach to inscribed text that recognised the significance of the objects and archaeological contexts in which they were found.
BSR no. TA[PRI]-GBP06-042
Focillon no. 332
Wilton-Ely no. 465
Bibliography
Salinitro, C. (2014) in Matrici incise, 1756-1757. Vol. 2. Milano: Mazzotta, no. 193, pp. 347-348.
How to quote this page:
Parte della Facciata del Sepolcro di Cecilia Metella cogli Ornamenti, che in oggi esistono, from Antichità Romane, volume III, plate L. Author(s) of this publication: Caroline Barron. Publishing date: 26/06/2023. URL: https://ipervisions.digitalcollections.bsr.ac.uk/piranesi-project-prints-june-2023/?slide=22 Date visited: