Italy - Lazio - Roma; Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) - Giuseppe Vasi (1710-1782) - Porta S. Paolo al Trigemina, Piramide Cajo Cestio, Chiesa S.S. Salvatore - 1781-1800

Engraving from 'On the Magnificence of Ancient and Modern Rome' by Giuseppe Vasi, from the eighteenth-century Roman edition.

Engraving by Giuseppe Vasi from the 18th century, showing a historic view of Porta San Paolo and the Cestius Pyramid in Rome. The gate, originally called Porta Ostiense, is one of the best-preserved of the Aurelian Walls.

Etching on heavy paper without watermark, in black and white. Excellent inking and good preservation state, with slight traces of foxing and browning along the edges of the sheet. The sheet is intact with wide original margins. INSURED shipment via courier parcel, rigid tube; to ensure insurance, any damages should be declared at the time of pickup. Provenance: private collection.

Giuseppe Vasi (Corleone, August 27, 1710 – Rome, April 16, 1782) was an Italian engraver, architect, and view painter.
Vasi was one of the most important etchers of views in eighteenth-century Rome. His fame was significantly overshadowed by Giovanni Battista Piranesi: about ten years his junior, Piranesi actually learned some of the secrets of etching technique from Vasi in the early 1740s. Vasi was appointed Palatine Count and Knight of the Order of the Spurred Gold. He was also a member of the prestigious Academy of Saint Luke and the Arcadia Academy of Rome. Vasi arrived in Rome in 1736, coming from Sicily. After three years of apprenticeship, he became part of the circle of Pope Clement XII (born Lorenzo Corsini) and his trusted librarian, Giovanni Gaetano Bottari. These contacts secured him an important position within the Calcografia Camerale, for which Vasi began creating views of notable monuments of modern Rome, such as the façade of San Giovanni in Laterano, the Trevi Fountain, and the Trinità dei Monti staircase.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, also known as Giambattista (Mogliano Veneto, October 4, 1720 – Rome, November 9, 1778), was an Italian engraver, architect, and architectural theorist.

His engraved panels, marked by a dramatic tone and graphics, appear to be imbued with a Roman idea of dignity and magnificence, expressed through the grandeur and isolation of architectural elements, in order to evoke a sublime feeling of greatness from the ancient past, yet marked by relentless abandonment.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi was born on October 4, 1720, to Angelo and Laura Lucchesi, and was baptized on October 8 in the parish of San Moisè in Venice. There is no documentary evidence to support the tradition that he was born in Mogliano, Veneto: his parents lived in Corte Barozzi in Venice. He was introduced to the study of architecture by his father, an expert stonemason and master builder, and by his maternal uncle Matteo Lucchesi, a Venetian water magistrate and lover of antiquity, based on the models of Andrea Palladio and Vitruvius. From his cultured brother Angelo, a Dominican friar, he acquired a certain command of Latin and an enduring love of Livy and the history of Rome. After a dispute with his uncle, the young Giovanni Battista continued his training with Giovanni Scalfarotto, another architect oriented toward a style that already heralded Neoclassicism; he also frequented the workshop of Carlo Zucchi.

In 1740, Piranesi, realizing the limited career opportunities available to him in the Venetian capital, decided to leave his homeland and move to Rome, participating as a draftsman in the diplomatic expedition of the new Venetian ambassador, Francesco Venier. He left on September 9th and arrived in Rome within the month, at the age of just twenty, finding lodgings in the Palazzo Venezia. Quickly revealing his talents as a draftsman, after an initial apprenticeship with the painters-scenographers Domenico and Giuseppe Valeriani and Giovanni Battista Nolli, around 1742 Piranesi learned the rudiments of etching under the guidance of Giuseppe Vasi, owner of a chalcographic workshop that was enjoying a certain popularity in Rome at the time. Furthermore, while still in Rome, Piranesi had the opportunity to form a close friendship with his fellow countryman Antonio Corradini, with whom he went to Naples around 1743 to study Baroque art and visit the archaeological excavations of Herculaneum.

Piranesi soon began to display a moving enthusiasm at the spectacle of the "speaking ruins" of the Imperial Forums, "that I never managed to form anything like them from the drawings, however meticulous, made of them by the immortal Palladio, which I nevertheless kept constantly before my eyes." This interest in Roman antiquities is evidenced by the 1743 execution of the First Part of Architecture and Perspectives invented and engraved by the Venetian architect Gio. Batta Piranesi. To produce this collection of twelve plates, in which he already stood out for his notable technical skill, Piranesi consulted the extensive library of Nicola Giobbe, through whose intercession he also managed to establish contact with Luigi Vanvitelli and Nicola Salvi.

Piranesi made an initial assessment of his artistic career between 1744 and 1747, when, driven by a lack of recognition and pressing economic conditions, he temporarily returned to Venice. During this largely undocumented stay, Piranesi probably wanted to reflect on what he had just accomplished artistically, also considering future choices: he was also in contact with Giovan Battista Tiepolo and Canaletto, who left a profound mark on his imagination. Ultimately, Piranesi decided to dedicate himself to the craft of engraving and to settle permanently in Rome, opening his own workshop on Via del Corso, opposite the French Academy: this was a well-considered choice, as scholar Henri Focillon observed, who commented: 'He deliberately accepts to be an engraver because he understands that this way he can realize his ambitions as an architect, archaeologist, and painter.'