Giovanni Battista Piranesi, the Antiquities of Rome, 1756, Tom. Ii, Plate Xx. Framed Antique Etching

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This beautiful etching from Giovanni Batista Piranesi
features architectural remnants from ancient Rome. This series was done in 1756. See … Read more This beautiful etching from Giovanni Batista Piranesi
features architectural remnants from ancient Rome. This series was done in 1756. See below for further information. I believe that this print is from the Italian series in the mid-1700s versus the Parisian series in 1802 because of the color and quality of the paper. This would have originally come from a coffee table like folio for Europeans returning home from a Grand Tour.

“Le Antichità Romane, a four-volume, 250-plate series produced in 1756 highlighted the decorative and technical elements of ancient Roman architecture. Piranesi’s treatise, a veritable Vitruvian-level architectural manual, helped shed light on the era of Greek Revival among architects and designers” - Art and Antiques

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), the greatest of the eighteenth century Italian etchers.1 These etchings compose Piranesi’s outstanding archaeological work Le Antichità Romane (The Antiquities of Rome) (1756) contained in four enormous folio-sized volumes which, if I may so put it, were among the coffee table books of eighteenth century northern European aristocracy. During the last stable years of the Ancien Régime, artists and craftsmen knew good times, while an ample patronage demanded perfection and extravagance in all the fine arts. The result was a tremendous achievement in quantity and quality. “ - Virginia A Meyers, The Stanley Museum, Iowa See less