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Giuseppe Vasi
Piazza Colona

1752

About the Item

Piazza Colona Etching, 1752 From: Della Magnificenze di Roma Antica e Moderna ( The Magnificense of Ancient and Modern Rome) , (1747-1761) Volume II, The Main Squares and Obelisks, columns and other ornaments, 1752, Plate No. 22 Della Magnificenze di Roma Antica e Moderna_ (1747-61), a collection of 238 plates that was published in ten volumes. Vasi recorded all types of architecture and organized these images of contemporary Rome by subject, with each volume representing a different category of architecture. This comprehensive project provides one of the most complete views of eighteenth-century Rome Signed in the plate lower left Condition: Excellent Image/Plate size: 8 1/4 x 12 11/16 inches Sheet size: 11 x 15 7/8 inches Vasi was Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s teacher. Piranesi (1720-1778) entered Vasi’s studio as an apprentice at age 20 c. 1740. Piranesi left Vasi’s employment after stabbing Vasi over the perception that Vasi was withholding secrets of the etching process. Giuseppe Vasi was an Italian engraver and painter born and trained in Sicily. He received a classical education in his hometown of Corleone and trained as a printmaker in nearby Palermo, perhaps under the tutelage of the etchers Antonino Bova and Francesco Cichè. He moved to Rome in 1736, already an established printmaker, and spent most of his career documenting the urban landscape of the city in engravings. Through his patron, the politically and culturally influential Cardinal Troiano Acquaviva d’Aragona, Vasi met other artists working in Rome, such as Sebastiano Conca, Ferdinando Fuga, and Luigi Vanvitelli. He was also influenced by his predecessors, including Giovanni Paolo Panini, Giovanni Battista Falda and Gaspar Vanvitelli, and by the tradition of _vedutismo_ that these figures pioneered. During the early 1740s Vasi also served as mentor to the young Giovanni Battista Piranesi, to whom he taught the technique of single-cut engraving. Vasi’s output can be organized into two categories, the first being his engravings of ephemeral structures, such as those used in the festival of the Chinea, while the second and more well-known and widely disseminated were his views of sites throughout Rome. Vasi’s first book, _Vedute del Tevere_ (1741-43), was a collection of these views. This book prefigured his later and most well known work, _Della Magnificenze di Roma Antica e Moderna_ (1747-61), a collection of 238 plates that was published in ten volumes. Vasi recorded all types of architecture and organized these images of contemporary Rome by subject, with each volume representing a different category of architecture. This comprehensive project provides one of the most complete views of eighteenth-century Rome. It acts as a pictorial supplement to Giovanni Battista Nolli’s famous map of Rome, _Pianta Grande_, completed in 1748. Nolli even supplied Vasi with measurements to aid in the drafting of his views of the city. In 1765 Vasi created a large, panoramic view of Rome for King Charles III of Spain, the _Prospetto dell’alma città di Roma_. The panorama, which measures 102.5 x 261.5 cm, consists of 437 engraved plates and is accompanied by several texts written by Vasi in the form of an _Itinerario_. Over the course of his forty-six year career, Vasi established himself as one of the principle engravers of Rome. In addition to his own great works, Vasi collaborated with other printmakers such as Philothèe-Francois Duflos and Louis-Joesph Le Lorrain, and through his workshop contributed to such important books as Niccola Zabaglia’s 1743 _Castelli e Ponti_ and Giuseppe Bianchini’s _Evangeliario Quadruplex_ (1749). Through his extensive and didactic body of work, Vasi illuminated the urban and architectural landscape of eighteenth-century Rome, and through his relationships with patrons, publishers, and other artists he left his mark on the print culture of the city.
  • Creator:
    Giuseppe Vasi (1710 - 1782, Italian)
  • Creation Year:
    1752
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 8.25 in (20.96 cm)Width: 12.69 in (32.24 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
    1750-1759
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Fairlawn, OH
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: FA126181stDibs: LU14015547882

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