Veduta dell’interno del Tempio di S. Stefano Rotondo (Interior view of the Church of San Stefano Rotondo)
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), Veduta dell’interno del Tempio di S. Stefano Rotondo (Interior view of the Church of San Stefano Rotondo), etching, 1756. First Edition, from the series Le Antichita Romane, Bouchard e Gravier 1756, section XXV, figure 2 [signed, numbered and titled in the plate]. References: Focillon 192, Wilton-Ely 327. In good condition, with margins, 5 1/2 x 8, the sheet 6 1/4 x 9 inches.
A very good impression, printed on a stiff cream laid paper.
Piranesi developed the plates of the Antichita Romane (Roman Antiquities) after eight years of careful study and excavation. His aim, as with all his archaeological publications, was both to record the vanishing past, and to inspire designers to emulate these past achievements.