![]() ![]() ![]() When he accepted an invitation to leave Rome for Australia, ‘it was on the steps of Santa Maria del Popolo, across from the two mirror churches that Piranesi depicted in his view of the Piazza del Popolo. A work made of etching on heavy ivory laid paper. This set journeyed to Melbourne by way of its first Roman Catholic archbishop, James Alipius Goold. Piranesi's 'Views of Rome' In his Views of Rome (Vedute di Roma), a series of copperplate engravings, the artist, architect, author, and antiquarian Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720 1778) portrayed the monuments of the Eternal City and its environs not just with precision and splendor, but as part of a living landscape. The series comprises two folios of the Baillieu’s first Paris edition of Piranesi’s works which was issued by his sons Francesco and Pietro in 1800-07. Piranesi was creating his Vedute di Roma (The Views of Rome) throughout his lifetime and they were purchased as single sheets, and sometimes bound together by their collectors. View of the Arch of Titus (Veduta dell’Arco di Tito) Tourists would also rely on guidebooks, which offered not only personal narratives and maps of the best trodden tracks, but also instructions on where to purchase the necessary printed souvenirs. The Arch of Titus, located just outside the Colosseum, was one of the chief destinations of the Tour. These are some of figures that people Piranesi’s streets and monuments. The Steps were also where these tourists would meet their cicerone or Italian guide who would explain the array of incredible Roman ruins, baroque buildings, antiquities and works of art to be explored in the ancient city. Traversing the Steps were the predominately English Grand Tourists who sought to purchase his monumental and evocative etchings as mementoes of their experiences of the eighteenth century continental education. The Piazza di Spagna, the location of the Spanish Steps, led directly to Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s printmaking and antiquities studio in the Strada Felice. ![]()
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