Italy - Rome; Giovanni Battista Piranesi - View of Piazza di Monte Cavallo - 1721-1750

During the eighteenth century, painted and engraved views of Rome were popular among visitors to the city, in particular the wealthy young Englishmen who roamed the Continent on what was known as the Grand Tour. The market was well established for these views (vedute) when, in the mid 1740s, the young Venetian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi made his first prints.

View of Piazza di Monte Cavallo belongs to the earliest etchings in the series and is thought to date before 1748. It represents one of the most famous piazzas of Rome, situated on the Quirinal Hill and called Monte Cavallo after the enormous sculptural group of two figures with their horses that grace its centre.

This very fine, hand coloured early impression of View of Piazza di Monte Cavallo belongs to the first edition of the Views of Rome, published in Rome by Bouchard and Gravier in 1750–51.

41.5 X 31.5 cm

Overall good condition with small imperfections consistent with age, a small triangular fold-back piece in the lower left part. It was mounted in the late 19th/ early 20th century on cardboard with an old Antwerp (Berchem) framer's label on the back.