Plate 5: trophies of Roman arms from decorations above the windows on the second floor of the Palazzo Milesi in Rome
Original title: Plate 5: trophies of Roman arms from decorations above the windows on the second floor of the Palazzo Milesi in Rome
kurzbeschreibung
In 1658 Giovanni Battista Galestruzzi etched a series of trophies of Roman arms that once adorned the windows on the second floor of the Palazzo Milesi in Rome. This sheet reproduces that decoration, with helmets, shields and lances arranged as ornament.
Description
Armour pieces and weapons — helmets, shields, lances — gather into a tidy arrangement. One helmet crowned with a plume draws the eye, an eagle's head set beside it. A grid of diagonal lines covers the ground and suggests fabric or hangings. Along the lower edge sits a round cartouche inscribed 'TROFEI DI POLIDORO disegnati dall'Originale IN ROMA et Intagliati da Giovan Battista Galestrucci Pittore Fiorentino 1658.'
Context
The etching of 1658 was made in Rome as part of a printed series in which Galestruzzi worked from designs by Polidoro da Caravaggio. Those designs went back to the facade decoration Polidoro had created for the Palazzo Milesi in the sixteenth century. With his series, the Florentine-born painter and printmaker preserved the classicising motifs of the Roman Renaissance facade.
Impact
Fine lines and the symmetrical row of trophies give the sheet a decorative, carefully calculated character. Though executed as a separate print on paper, the view makes the splendour of Roman facade design vividly present.
Technique
An etching in the second state on paper: the plate measures 12.3 x 17.5 cm, the sheet 19.1 x 26.1 cm. With thin strokes and hatching the print records armour and weapons in detail, as was characteristic of seventeenth-century printmaking.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)