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Gianbattista Piranesi
Mozano di Mestre, Venice 1720 – 1778 Rome
Frontispiece to
Lapides Capitolini – The Dedication to Pope Clement XIII
Frontispiece to
Lapides Capitolini – The Dedication to Pope Clement XIII
G. B. Piranesi’s Capitoline Inscriptions or Consular and Triumphal Lists from the Founding of the City to the reign of the Emperor Tiberius Caesar
Wilton-Ely 554
505 x 355 mm
Original etching, 1762.
The plate signed.
Trimmed to a thread margin at the left edge.
Edge mounted.
Sold
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Additional
Information about the Print
The Lapides Capitolini
Lapides Capitolini, published 1762, is essentially one very large folding plate with explanatory text. It illustrates inscriptions found in the Roman Forum listing all the Consuls, Triumphs and the major Games.
In the 16th century these had been mounted on a wall in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, on the Capitoline Hill, in a sculpted frame designed by Michelangelo.
The text was illustrated with three vignettes and prefaced by the title page and a frontispiece dedication.
A fellow Venetian, a member of the Rezzonico family, Pope Clement XIII, whose papacy spanned the 1760’s (1758-69), was Piranesi’s major patron during the decade.
He commissioned the rebuilding of the church of S. Maria del Priorato in Rome, Piranesi’s only actual work as an architect, as well as supporting his archaeological treatises, such as Lapides Capitolini, all of which were published in the 1760’s with Clement XIII’s patronage.
Prints from Lapides Capitolini in this exhibition are:
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