the Triumphal Arch, detail
| GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI (Mogliano Veneto 1720 - Rome 1778) THE GROTTESCHI, 1747-1748 (The Skeletons, The Triumphal Arch, The Tomb of Nero, The Monumental Tablet) Etchings (with engraving, drypoint, scratching and burnishing), Robison 21, 22, 23, 24; fine, even impressions, of the second edition, fifth issue (early 1770s). With full margins, in very good condition. Strips from the old binding behind the faint centerfolds. Robison 21: second state of five, watermark fleur-de-lis in double circle (R.36). To the platemark 392 x 548 mm, the entire sheet measuring 580 x 805 mm. Robison 22: third state of five, watermark fleur-de-lis in double circle (R.36). To the platemark 390 x 545 mm, the entire sheet measuring 588 x 800 mm. Robison 23: fourth state of six, watermark fleur-de-lis in double circle (R.36). To the platemark 390 x 547 mm, the entire sheet measuring 586 x 800 mm. Robison 24: second state of fourth. To the platemark 392 x 539 mm, the entire sheet measuring 590 x 805 mm. The son of a stonemason, Giovanni Battista Piranesi was educated as an architect in Venice under his maternal uncle Matteo Lucchesi. In 1740 Piranesi left Venice for Rome, there he studied under Giuseppe Vasi, who introduced him to the art of etching and engraving. From 1743 to 1747 Piranesi sojourned mainly in Venice. He then returned to Rome, where he opened a workshop in Via del Corso. Piranesi was a rapid and facile worker and his output in etched plates was enormous: large prints, full of detail, vigour, and brilliancy. The genre of view painting, on which Piranesi based his work, gave him the means to elaborate and develop an original manner of seeing and documenting the past. While he achieved a work of magnitude in pictorial records of Roman monuments of antiquity and of the Renaissance, and gave immense archæological, antiquarian, and topographical value to this work, the artistic quality always predominates. As a rule Piranesi drew directly on copper, and hence his work is bold, free, and spirited to a marked degree. His highly original etching technique produces rich textures and bold contrasts of light and shadow by means of intricate, repeated bitings of the copperplate. His unparalleled accuracy of depiction, his personal expression of the structures' dramatic and romantic grandeur, and his technical mastery made these prints some of the most original and impressive representations of architecture to be found in Western art. |
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