Piranesi’s Views of Rome Colouring Book

Eighteenth-century Venetian etcher Giovanni Battista Piranesi thought of himself as an architect. Piranesi—son of a stonemason, nephew of an engineer, and brother of a Carthusian monk—studied stage design and perspective. As a young man he moved to Rome, apprenticed to etcher Giuseppe Vasi, and began making a living through his etchings of the city’s ruins and other structures. These were, essentially, souvenirs for well-heeled tourists. Though he struggled to work as an architect, his knowledge of and facility with the subject lent authority to his art.

Piranesi’s works were dramatic, some more fantasy than reality (he famously produced a series of etchings imagining elaborate prison interiors). Those new to Rome in his time would have found a city different than the one represented in his Vedute de Roma, or Views of Rome, which made creative use of composition and lighting. He produced more than one thousand etchings in his lifetime, with Vedute his best-known artistic achievement. He spent more than thirty years producing its 135 original plates, working until his death in 1778. Ten years later, his son Francesco added two plates of his own (one is included here). Francesco continued to sell and publish his father’s works for decades, furthering their popularity throughout Europe.

Images

1. Title page
2. Frontispiece with statue of Minerva
3. St. Peter’s Square with St. Peter’s Basilica and colonnades
4. St. Peter’s Basilica: the interior with the nave
5. St. Peter’s Basilica, from the Piazza della Sagrestia
6. Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura (St. Paul outside the Walls)
7. San Giovanni in Laterano, main facade with palace and Scala Santa on the right
8. Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore with the church of Santa Maria Maggiore and the column from the Basilica of Maxentius
9. Piazza dell’Esquilino with the rear of the church of Santa Maria Maggiore and obelisk
10. Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura (St. Paul outside the Walls)
11. San Sebastiano
12. Piazza del Popolo
13. Piazza del Quirinale and the statues of the Dioscuri and their horses
14. Piazza Navona, with Sant’Agnese on the right
15. Piazza della Rotonda with the obelisk fountain and the Pantheon on the right
16. Piazza di Spagna with the Fontana della Barcaccia and the Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti (or Spanish Steps)
17. Fontana dell’Acqua Felice
18. Fontana dell’Acqua Paola
19. Palazzo della Consulta
20. Palazzo di Montecitorio
21. Palazzo Salviati (or Palazzo dell’Accademia di Francia)
22. Palazzo Barberini
23. Harbour and quay called the Ripa Grande
24. Castel Sant’Angelo
25. Temple of Hadrian, or Hadrianeum, in the Piazza di Pietra
26. Santa Costanza (erroneously called the Temple of Bacchus)
27. Capitol and the steps of Santa Maria in Aracoeli
28. Buildings around the Piazza del Campidoglio seen from the side of the stepped ramp, or Cordonata
29. Foro Romano, seen from the Capitoline Hill: the Arch of Septimius Severus in the foreground and the Colosseum in the distance
30. Foro Romano: the Temple of Castor and Pollux and Santa Maria Liberatrice in the left foreground and Monte Aventino in the distance
31. Church of Santa Maria Egiziaca, formerly the Temple of Portunus (sometimes known as the Temple of Fortuna Virile)
32. Foro Romano: the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina (or San Lorenzo in Miranda)
33. Trajan’s Forum: Trajan’s Column and Santissimo Nome di Maria
34. Column of Marcus Aurelius (or Colonna Antonina), Piazza Colonna
35. Foro Romano: the Arch of Septimius Severus and the church of Santi Luca e Martina
36. Arch of Constantine and the Colosseum
37. Colosseum
38. Pantheon, Piazza della Rotonda
39. Santa Maria di Loreto, Santissimo Nome di Maria and Trajan’s Column
40. San Giovanni in Laterano
41. Arch of Constantine
42. St. Peter’s Basilica: the interior beneath the dome
43. Piazza del Quirinale
44. Villa d’Este, Tivoli
45. Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano: with the obelisk and octagonal baptistery
46. San Giovanni in Laterano
47. Villa Pamphili (or Villa Doria Pamphili): the Casino
48. River Tiber at the mouth of the Cloaca Maxima (formerly called the Bel Lido), with the Temple of Hercules Victor and the campanile of Santa Maria in Cosmedin
49. Santa Maria degli Angeli
50. Pantheon, Piazza della Rotonda, added by Francesco Piranesi (1758–1810)