View of the Arch of Constantine and the Flavian Amphitheatre, called the Colosseum

Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Italy
1720 – 1778

View of the Arch of Constantine and the Flavian Amphitheatre, called the Colosseum
from the series Vedute di Roma (Views of Rome and Environs)
c 1746-48?
etching on paper
Place made
Rome
Medium
etching on paper
State
Wilton-Ely 152
Dimensions
40.6 x 54.2 cm (plate)
54.2 x 68.0 cm (sheet)
Credit line
Bequest of David Murray 1908
Accession number
084G3080
Signature and date
Signed, engraved in margin of image l.r "Piranesi del. scolp.". Not dated.
Catalogue raisonne
Hind 56 iv/vi [before number '32' added in the fifthe state]; Focillon 805; Wilton-Ely 152
Media category
Print
Collection area
European prints

  • WALL LABEL: A Beautiful Line: Italian prints from Mantegna to Piranesi, 2012

     

    The Venetian-born Piranesi transformed the art of printmaking in the mid-eighteenth century, through over a thousand prints that encompassed city views, architectural fantasies and archaeological treatises. In his first years in Rome he created city views, which he sold to a thriving tourist market. Working on a large format, Piranesi used the knowledge he had gained as a stage designer and exploited the effects of linear perspective to create unusual compositions that presented the Roman cityscape with dramatic intensity. The 135 city views that he created over the next twenty years became his most well-known works.

     

    Maria Zagala, Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs

  • Making Nature: Masters of European Landscape Art

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 26 June 2009 – 6 September 2009

  • A beautiful line. Italian prints from Mantegna to Piranesi

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 20 August 2010 – 31 October 2010
  • [Book] Robison, Andrew. Piranesi tra Venezia e l'Europa.
  • [Book] Messenger, Jane. Making Nature: Masters of European Landscape Art.
  • [Book] Zagala, Maria. A Beautiful Line : Italian prints from Mantegna to Piranesi.