Vedute di Roma (Views of Rome), part I
Original title: Vedute di Roma (Views of Rome), part I
kurzbeschreibung
People fill the Via del Corso, and behind them rises the facade of the Palazzo dell'Accademia. This view comes from Giovanni Battista Piranesi's 'Vedute di Roma', made between about 1750 and 78. The sheet belongs to a bound volume and measures roughly 54.5 x 42 cm. In this etching, architecture and everyday street life are closely bound together.
Description
Workers, talkers and passers-by are staggered along the street leading to the Palazzo dell'Accademia. The building's facade occupies the middle of the image and is densely articulated: columns, balconies and rows of windows shape its structure. Renaissance and Baroque forms mingle in the architecture; further buildings and trees appear beyond it. A layer of cloud softens the light, and the etching's graded greys bring out the structures down to the smallest detail. The layout is broad and oriented toward the front of the building.
Context
For decades, from about 1748, Piranesi worked on the 'Vedute di Roma' and issued them in several parts. They record both ancient and contemporary buildings of Rome and were intended for Grand Tour travellers. The Palazzo dell'Accademia shown here was among the important sites of Roman cultural life. Piranesi also worked as an architect and antiquarian, which explains the precision with which he captured architectural detail.
Impact
Evenly distributed light and clearly ordered architecture give the print a calm, matter-of-fact tone. Against this monumental backdrop, everyday life unfolds vividly yet with a noticeable distance — a trait characteristic of Piranesi.
Technique
For an etching, the drawing is scratched into a wax layer on a copper plate and the metal is then bitten with acid; this is an intaglio process. Finely and precisely drawn lines allow a high degree of detail. The grey values arise solely from the varying density and direction of the strokes, with no added colour.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)