By Luigi Rossini
Located in Roma, IT
Luigi Rossini Like his predecessor Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Rossini focused on extant antique Roman architecture and excavations in Rome and its environs, and rendered in exquisite detail classical architecture of Rome and its surrounding countryside. In contrast to Piranesi, he made greater use of the bucolic settings in his etchings of Roman ruins. His images of the architectural masterpieces of ancient Rome, including the Pantheon, the Coliseum, the Appian Way, the Temple of Peace, and the Golden House of Nero, have greatly influenced architects, artists, writers, and other connoisseurs of Roman culture up to the present day.
His first series of views was published in 1814. He began his Roman antiquities series in 1819, completing 101 large folio plates which were published in Rome in 1825.
The Pantheon is a former Roman temple, now a Catholic church (Basilica di Santa Maria ad Martyres or Basilica of St. Mary and the Martyrs), in Rome, Italy, on the site of an earlier temple commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD). It was completed by the emperor Hadrian and probably dedicated about 126 AD. Its date of construction is uncertain, because Hadrian chose not to inscribe the new temple but rather to retain the inscription of Agrippa's older temple, which had burned down. The building is cylindrical with a portico of large granite Corinthian columns (eight in the first rank and two groups of four behind) under a pediment. A rectangular vestibule links the porch to the rotunda, which is under a coffered concrete dome, with a central opening (oculus) to the sky. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome.[3] The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, 43 metres (142 ft).
It is one of the best-preserved of all Ancient Roman buildings, in large part because it has been in continuous use throughout its history and, since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been in use as a church dedicated to "St. Mary and the Martyrs" (Latin: Sancta Maria ad Martyres) but informally known as "Santa Maria Rotonda".[5] The square in front of the Pantheon is called Piazza della Rotonda. The Pantheon is a state property...
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19th Century Realist Luigi Rossini Art