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Giovanni Battista Piranesi - Colonna Trajana.

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Giovanni Battista Piranesi - Colonna Trajana.

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Public domain scan of 16th-17th-century print, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

A Collection Of Architecture Prints by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 1748 - 1751

Vatican was an uninhabited part of Rome (the ager Vaticanus) and was considered sacred, or at least not available for habitation. A shrine dedicated to the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis remained active long after the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter was built nearby. Catholics recognize the pope as the successor of Saint Peter, whom Jesus designated as the "rock" upon which the Church was to be built. Although Peter never was called a "pope" (Latin papa), Catholics recognize him as the first Pope and Bishop of Rome. The bishops of Rome had not much power till the time of Emperor Constantine. After the fall of Rome in 476, the papacy was under the rule of sovereigns of the states surrounding Rome, but over the time, the popes consolidated a portion of the peninsula known as the Papal States. From 1048 to 1257, the papacy experienced conflict with the Byzantine Empire ended up in the East–West Schism, dividing the Western Church and Eastern Church. From 1257–1377, during conflicts with the Holy Roman Empire and France, the pope resided in Viterbo, Orvieto, and Perugia, and then Avignon, from 1309 to 1377. The return of the popes to Rome after the Avignon was followed by the Western Schism: the division of the western Church between two and, sometimes, three competing popes. On return to Rome from Avignon, popes chose to live at the Vatican. They moved to the Quirinal Palace in 1583, after work on it was completed under Pope Paul V (1605–1621), and on the capture of Rome in 1870 moved to the Vatican again. Popes ruled the Papal States, which covered a significant portion of the Italian peninsula, for more than a thousand years until the mid-19th century, when all their territories were seized by the newly created Kingdom of Italy. For most of this time, the popes did not live at the Vatican. The Lateran Palace, on the opposite side of Rome, was their residence for about a thousand years. In this palace, in 1929, the agreement was signed for King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy by Prime Minister Benito Mussolini and for Pope Pius XI by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri. The Lateran Treaty created the state of the Vatican City and guaranteed popes full and independent sovereignty. The pope was pledged to perpetual neutrality in international relations and to abstention from mediation in a controversy unless specifically requested by all parties. Along with Vatican, certain papal properties that are located in Italian territory, most notably the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo and the major basilicas, enjoy extraterritorial status similar to that of foreign embassies. There are no passport controls for visitors entering Vatican City from the surrounding Italian territory.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric "prisons" (Le Carceri d'Invenzione), was born in Veneto, the Republic of Venice in a family of stonemasons and architects. He was apprenticed of his uncle, who was a leading architect in Magistrato delle Acque, the state organization responsible for engineering and restoring historical buildings. From 1740, he worked in Rome as a draughtsman for Marco Foscarini, the Venetian ambassador. He worked with pupils of the French Academy in Rome to produce a series of vedute (views) of the city. From 1743 to 1747 he was back in Venice where he often visited Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. In 1748–1774, back in Rome, he created a series of vedute of the city which established his fame. In 1761 he became a member of the Accademia di San Luca and opened a printing facility of his own. He died in Rome in 1778, and was buried in the church he had helped restore, Santa Maria del Priorato. His tomb was designed by Giuseppi Angelini.

Printmaking in woodcut and engraving came to Northern Italy within a few decades of their invention north of the Alps. Engraving probably came first to Florence in the 1440s, the goldsmith Maso Finiguerra (1426–64) used the technique. Italian engraving caught the very early Renaissance, 1460–1490. Print copying was a widely accepted practice, as well as copying of paintings viewed as images in their own right.

Originally, the site of the Roman Forum was a lake where waters from the surrounding hills drained. Because of its location, sediments from the erosion of the surrounding hills have been raising the level of the Forum floor for centuries. The low-lying wetland of the Forum was drained in the 7th century BC with the building of the Cloaca Maxima. Roman Forum developed gradually, over many centuries. Forum's long dimension extended from the foot of the Capitoline Hill to that of the Velian Hill. The Forum included a square, the buildings facing it, and, sometimes, an additional area (the Forum Adjectum) extending southeast as far as the Arch of Titus. The Forum functioned as an open-air market but eventually outgrew its marketplace role: political speeches, civil trials, and other public affairs dominated the Forum. An important function of the Forum was to serve as the culminating venue for the Triumphs. Victorious generals entered the city by the western Triumphal Gate (Porta Triumphalis) and circumnavigated the Palatine Hill (counterclockwise) before proceeding from the Velian Hill down the Via Sacra and into the Forum. In 600 BC Forum area was paved for the first time. The earliest basilicas (large, aisled halls) were introduced to the Forum in 184 BC by Marcus Porcius Cato, which began the process of "monumentalizing" the site. In the 80s BC, major work was done on the Forum including the raising of the plaza level by almost a meter and the laying of permanent marble paving stones. During early Imperial times, the economic and judicial business transferred away from the Forum. In the 5th Century AD Rome's population fell from 750,000 to 250,000. The populated areas contracted to leave Forum more or less intact. On 1 August 608, the Column of Phocas, a Roman monumental column, was erected. This proved to be the last monumental addition made to the Forum. By the 8th century, the Forum was surrounded by Christian churches taking the place of the abandoned temples falling apart at that time. During the Middle Ages, its location was called the "Campo Vaccino" or "cattle field." The structures of the Forum were dismantled and used to build towers and castles within the local area, the site became a dumping ground and a quarry for new buildings including the new Saint Peter's Basilica. The papal authorities eventually demolished many medieval structures on the site, to reveal and better display the ancient monuments. The Roman Forum has been a source of inspiration for artists for centuries.

date_range

Date

1600 - 1800
person

Contributors

Charrington, John, 1856-1939, Collector
Piranesi, Giovanni Battista, 1720-1778, Artist
Piranesi, Giovanni Battista, 1720-1778, Etcher
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Source

New York Public Library
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Copyright info

Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication ("CCO 1.0 Dedication")

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