Giovanni Battista PIRANESI (1720 - 1778): Veduta dell’ Anfiteatro Flavio, detto il Colosseo [View of the Flavian Amphitheatre, called the Colosseum - Bird’s-eye view] - 1776
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Etching, 495 x 706 mm. Hind 126, 1st state (of 4).
Superb and rare impression of the 1st state (of 4), before the numbers 22 II and 98 on the banner at the bottom right.
First issue printed on watermarked laid paper (ornamental shield with crossbar, Robison 61: dated by Robison to the late 1770s-early 1780s). Very good overall condition, small margins (sheet: 518 x 728 mm).
One of the most impressive plates in the Vedute di Roma series.
This bird's-eye view of the Colosseum is striking for its tight framing around the amphitheatre, accentuating its monumentality. The figures, crowded together in the centre of the arena in front of the cross erected in 1743 by Pope Benedict XIV, or scattered among the gaping ruins, appear all the smaller for it. The sharp contrast in light between the very dark building and the very bright arena floor has led to the assumption that Piranesi, as on other occasions, drew this view at night, by moonlight.
Piranesi etched the Colosseum several times, varying the angles of view. The Colosseum (Hind 57), etched in 1757, is a frontal view of its best-preserved façade. It can be seen in the background of The Arch of Constantine and the Colosseum (Hind 56), etched in 1760. The Colosseum: Interior (Hind 78), etched in 1766, places the viewer in the middle of the ruins of the amphitheatre.
Ten years later, the View of the Flavian Amphitheatre, called the Colosseum, is a bird's-eye view executed with virtuosity: this unusual perspective offers the viewer a comprehensive view of the complex architecture of the building, whose internal structure has been laid bare by centuries of damage, revealing the ruins of the stands that could accommodate several thousand spectators. Piranesi accompanies this view with two engraved cartouches indicating the classical distribution of Romans in the stands according to their place in society: emperor, consuls, senators, soldiers, women, etc.
References: Arthur Mayger Hind: Giovanni Battista Piranesi: A critical study, with a list of his published works, 1922; Andrew Robison: Piranesi: Early Architectural Fantasies; a Catalogue Raisonné of the Etchings, 1986.