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Gianbattista Piranesi
Mozano di Mestre, Venice 1720 – 1778 Rome

Title Page to
Descrizione e disegno dell’ Emissario del Lago Albano di Gio Batista Piranesi

Gianbattista Piranesi, Mozano di Mestre, Venice 1720 – 1778 Rome. Title page to Descrizione e disegno dell’ Emissario del Lago Albano di Gio Batista Piranesi. Original etching, 1762.

Title page to
Descrizione e disegno dell’ Emissario del Lago Albano di Gio Batista Piranesi

Description and Design of the Emissarium of Lake Albano
Wilton-Ely 613
425 x 270 mm
Original etching, 1762.
The plate signed.
Edge mounted.

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Additional Information about the Print

The Descrizione e disegno dell’ Emissario del Lago Albano
Published in 1762, the Descrizione e disegno dell’ Emissario del Lago Albano, describing the drainage outlet of Lake Albano, was based on Piranesi’s own on-site researches and excavation.

Built in 398 BC, over two centuries before Rome conquered Greece, for Piranesi this major engineering achievement vindicated his passionate support of Ancient Roman originality in the then current Graeco-Roman controversy.

Livy records that while besieging the Etruscan city of Veii, an oracle ordered that the nearby lake had to be lowered to assure a Roman victory. In response, within a year, they had dug a tunnel five feet high by three wide, 4593 feet in length, still in use in Piranesi’s day.

Piranesi made a series of ten plates illustrating plans, cross-sections, reconstructed elevations and views of the inlet and outlet structures, combining technical drawings with emotive vedute. The volcanic Lake Albano, about twelve miles out of Rome, was overlooked by Castel Gandolfo, the Pope’s summer residence.

Gianbattista Piranesi, Mozano di Mestre, Venice 1720 – 1778 Rome. Title page to Descrizione e disegno dell’ Emissario del Lago Albano di Gio Batista Piranesi. Original etching, 1762.

The two figures, seen much closer than in Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma, give scale and emphasis to the monumental undertaking.

Prints from Descrizione e disegno dell’ Emissario del Lago Albano in this exhibition are: