View of the Arch of Titus, from Vedute di Roma (Views of Rome)
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720-1778)
1750/59
- Medium
- Etching in black on ivory laid paper
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Image: 38.1 × 61.5 cm (15 × 24 1/4 in.); Plate: 40.6 × 62 cm (16 × 24 7/16 in.); Sheet: 55.6 × 78.2 cm (21 15/16 × 30 13/16 in.)
- Culture
- Italy
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Clarence Buckingham Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s grand-scale prints are considered some of the most remarkable etchings of the 18th century. In over a thousand plates, he masterfully incorporated a broad range of lines, from delicately fine details to deep incisions that emboss the paper when printed. A self-proclaimed architect, the Venetian-born Piranesi moved to Rome when he was twenty and made a profitable livelihood selling his etchings of the city’s landmarks to tourists. He captured the coexistence of modern life and idealized antiquities, such as this view of the Arch of Titus, built in AD 81, which towers over pedestrians below.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
