Image

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Veduta dell' Isola Tiberina (View of the Isle of Tiber)

Description

Maker

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720-1778), printmaker

Title

Veduta dell' Isola Tiberina (View of the Isle of Tiber)
, from Vedute di Roma (Views of Rome)

Year

1775

Medium

Etching on laid paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Etching on laid paper

Materials

etching

Supports

Heavy weight cream laid paper

Dimensions

Plate: 47.5 x 71.3 cm (18 11/16 x 28 1/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Orignal--Recto:inscribed in pencil in LR:Isle of the Tiber,/first state Verso:in pencil in LL:A 25664In Plate--Inscribed in scroll in LC:VEDUTA dell Isola Tiberina. A Avanzi delle Sostruzioni del/Temp

Identification

State

i/iii

Standard Reference Number

Hind 1922, no. 121; Wilton-Ely, no. 254

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of the Fazzano Brothers

Object Number

1986.167.3

Type

Prints

Exhibition History

The Theatre That Was Rome

Apr 09, 2004 – Jul 11, 2004

Label copy

When he first came to Rome, Piranesi studied etching (1740-43) under Giuseppe Vasi. Their respective views of the Tiber River reveal the radically different manner in which teacher and student approached the subject. Vasi [E: case] depicts contemporary scenes and architecture. On the left are the houses of the Ghetto (1) into which Paul IV segregated the Jews in a papal bull of 1555. At right is one of the mills (4) that transformed the flow of the Tiber into power for grinding grain. Piranesi, however, emphasizes the island’s mythological past. Through distinctive use of light and shadow and distortion of scale, Piranesi showed the island in its legendary shape as a boat, dedicated to Aesculapius, the god of healing

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This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720-1778), printmaker

Veduta dell' Isola Tiberina (View of the Isle of Tiber); , from Vedute di Roma (Views of Rome), 1775

Etching on laid paper

Plate: 47.5 x 71.3 cm (18 11/16 x 28 1/16 inches)

Gift of the Fazzano Brothers 1986.167.3

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