PIRANESI, Giovanni Battista (1720-1778). Antichità romane de' tempi della repubblica, e de' primi imperatori [i.e. Alcune vedute di archi trionfali ]. Rome: G.B. Piranesi, [c. 1748]. 2 parts bound in one volume, oblong broadsheets (357 x 512mm). 2 etched part-titles [W.-E. 103 and 119], dedication leaf [W.-E. 104], leaf of inscriptions [W.-E. 105], leaf of inscriptions and index [W.-E. 106], and 25 plates [including that of the 'Arco di Galieno'] by G.B. Piranesi after G.B. Piranesi [28] and Israel Sylvestre [2] [W.-E. 108-118 and 120-133]. (Occasional light marginal marking, some light spotting, heavier on first title, dedication, leaves of inscriptions and final plate.) Late 18th-/early 19th-century half mottled calf (extremities rubbed and chipped, short splits on joints, boards a little marked and scuffed), red-speckled edges. Provenance : 20th-century pressmarks 'V.27' on spine and upper board. FIRST EDITION. 'THESE EXQUISITE PLATES ... MAY BE CONSIDERED AMONG THE ARTIST'S GRAPHIC MASTERPIECES. They possess a unity of and range of experiment lacking in the Varie vedute and even in the early plates of the larger Vedute di Roma , which probably overlap this series in time. [The etchings] show strong evidence of Tiepolo's decisive influence on Piranesi during the latter's return visit to Venice in the mid-1740s, together with the first signs of certain compositional ideas which were to be transferred to the larger Vedute in the next decade' (Wilton-Ely, p.144). This series of views is based upon Piranesi's sketches made during travels in both Rome and Italy between c.1743 and c.1747; the first part depicts ruins within Rome, and the second ruins without. After 1761, Antichità romane de' tempi della repubblica was re-titled Alcune vedute di archi trionfali ed altri monumenti inalzati da romani parte de quali se veggono in roma e parte per l'Italia -- presumably to avoid confusion with Piranesi's Le antichità romane of 1756--and this edition was augmented with two further plates: 'Veduta dell'arco fabbricato in onore d'Augusto vicino città di Aosta' (by Piranesi after Sir Roger Newdigate's drawing of 1775) and 'Tempio di Minerva Medici' (by Francesco Piranesi . This copy includes the 'Arco di Galieno' plate (which is unnumbered and not called for by the index), bound following that of the 'Arco di Settimio Severo'. Hind pp. 75-6; Wilton-Ely C.III.
PIRANESI, Giovanni Battista (1720-1778). Antichità romane de' tempi della repubblica, e de' primi imperatori [i.e. Alcune vedute di archi trionfali ]. Rome: G.B. Piranesi, [c. 1748]. 2 parts bound in one volume, oblong broadsheets (357 x 512mm). 2 etched part-titles [W.-E. 103 and 119], dedication leaf [W.-E. 104], leaf of inscriptions [W.-E. 105], leaf of inscriptions and index [W.-E. 106], and 25 plates [including that of the 'Arco di Galieno'] by G.B. Piranesi after G.B. Piranesi [28] and Israel Sylvestre [2] [W.-E. 108-118 and 120-133]. (Occasional light marginal marking, some light spotting, heavier on first title, dedication, leaves of inscriptions and final plate.) Late 18th-/early 19th-century half mottled calf (extremities rubbed and chipped, short splits on joints, boards a little marked and scuffed), red-speckled edges. Provenance : 20th-century pressmarks 'V.27' on spine and upper board. FIRST EDITION. 'THESE EXQUISITE PLATES ... MAY BE CONSIDERED AMONG THE ARTIST'S GRAPHIC MASTERPIECES. They possess a unity of and range of experiment lacking in the Varie vedute and even in the early plates of the larger Vedute di Roma , which probably overlap this series in time. [The etchings] show strong evidence of Tiepolo's decisive influence on Piranesi during the latter's return visit to Venice in the mid-1740s, together with the first signs of certain compositional ideas which were to be transferred to the larger Vedute in the next decade' (Wilton-Ely, p.144). This series of views is based upon Piranesi's sketches made during travels in both Rome and Italy between c.1743 and c.1747; the first part depicts ruins within Rome, and the second ruins without. After 1761, Antichità romane de' tempi della repubblica was re-titled Alcune vedute di archi trionfali ed altri monumenti inalzati da romani parte de quali se veggono in roma e parte per l'Italia -- presumably to avoid confusion with Piranesi's Le antichità romane of 1756--and this edition was augmented with two further plates: 'Veduta dell'arco fabbricato in onore d'Augusto vicino città di Aosta' (by Piranesi after Sir Roger Newdigate's drawing of 1775) and 'Tempio di Minerva Medici' (by Francesco Piranesi . This copy includes the 'Arco di Galieno' plate (which is unnumbered and not called for by the index), bound following that of the 'Arco di Settimio Severo'. Hind pp. 75-6; Wilton-Ely C.III.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
