Le Vedute di Roma

Publication: Le Vedute di Roma, a journay through the eternal city

Author: Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778)

Print artist: Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778)

Published: 1750-1778

A complete set includes: 
1 title page
2 content page with all titles of the prints
138 prints after the engraved originals
Certificate of authenticity
2 Solander boxes

Casing: The complete set will be cased in two elegant handcrafted Solander Boxes covered in special linen embossed with silver lettering.

You may choose your own color of the boxes and your own lettering.

Size of the prints: 31.9 x 21.7 inches (81 x 55 cm).

Durability: To ensure the durability, the giclée’s are printed on acid-free white etching paper (270 g/m²) with archival ink.

Quality: These prints were  photographed using the latest technology and reproduced at the original plate size. Printed in the highest possible resolution, these prints are virtually indistinguishable from the originals when glazed and framed.

Limited Edition: The edition will be limited to 50 sets, numbered 1/50 to 50/50, signed and stamped with a blind embossing.

Shipping and delivery: Read more about shipping and delivery in our FAQ .

From his detailed etchings of Rome to the dark imaginings of his fictitious prisons; Piranesi is one of Italy’s most extraordinary artists.

Born in Mogliano Veneto near Treviso (then part of the Republic of Venice), Piranesi was the son of a Venetian stonemason. But it was his uncle, Matteo Lucchesi – a leading architect, who taught Piranesi to draw, and to design architectural structures.

Rome

In 1740, the young Piranesi travelled to Rome where he lived and worked for almost all his life. His early career began working as a draughtsman for the Venetian ambassador Marco Foscarini.

While living in the Palazzo Venezia (the papal palace), Piranesi was tutored by the Italian engraver Giuseppe Vasi who introduced him to the art of etching and engraving of Rome and its monuments.

Inspired by his studies, Piranesi began creating the vedute (views) of Rome, for which he would become famous.

Engraver and print publisher

Piranesi briefly returned to Venice in 1744, planning to launch a career as an architect. When this plan failed, he returned to Rome in 1747, opening a workshop in Via del Corso where he established himself as an engraver and print publisher.

It was at this time that Rome had become one of the main destinations for visitors on the Grand Tour of Europe. The tourists wanted souvenirs and Piranesi was happy to oblige, offering prints of Renaissance Rome and its ruins.

Atmospheric depictions of the Eternal City

Piranesi’s popularity grew quickly. And while he found fame from his detailed and atmospheric depictions of the Eternal City; he is equally well-known for his haunting imaginings of prison interiors, invented from his own mind.

Piranesi died in Rome in 1778 after a long illness. He was buried in the Santa Maria del Priorato, the church he had helped restore, in a tomb designed by the Italian sculptor Giuseppe Angelini.

In 1803, Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother and King of Naples (from 1806-1808) and later the King of Spain (from 1808-1813), donated Piranesi’s original etchings to the Ghent library.

Piranesi devoted a large part of his life to his etchings of Rome. This proved seminal through its influence not only on other artists, but also on the entire European and colonial society.

Piranesi’s unmatched technical skill allowed him to produce larger etchings than was normal at the time and to render his subjects with unsurpassed accuracy.

His views of antiquities also caught the mood of his own age, reflecting the neo-classical interest in the culture of classical Greece and Rome, and at the same time romanticising the antique in a way that appealed to the spirit of the day (Rousseau’s “bon sauvage” appeared in 1755).

In this sense Piranesi (1720-1778) and his Vedute di Roma played a central role in the transition from neoclassicism to romanticism. They influenced Goethe, Byron and Keats, a long line of British architects from Robert Adams to John Ruskin, and many others.

All these people visited Rome after seeing Piranesi’s prints. Around 1774, as Piranesi completed the series, he produced a large reference map to accompany the collection (Pianta di Roma e del Campo Marzo). It shows the location of the antiquities in relation to modern Rome and the Campus Martius and its surroundings to the north of the city, with a smaller inset map of the ancient city.

In 1803, Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother and King of Naples (1806-1808) and Spain (1808 – 1813), donated the original etchings of Piranesi to the Ghent Library.