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Overview
This etching is almost deliberately unsigned, but is clearly visually traceable to the famous Rome-based printmaker, and antiquarian, Giovanna Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) and his larger etching (133 x 203 mm) - twice the size of this print - of the same edifice, Avanzo del primo Castello di una parte dell'Acqua Giulia. They both depict the sublime ruinous remains of the first fountain-head of a part of the Acqua Giulia, from Roman antiquity. Piranesi's original print comes from the four-volume Antichità di Roma (Roman antiquities), begun when he was in his late twenties, and which has over 250 plates. It is, according to Piranesi expert John Wilton-Ely, a ‘magisterial work’ which provides ‘an innovative system of archaeological enquiry intended for the education of contemporary designers and their patrons.’ It brought Piranesi international fame and election to an honorary fellowship of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
It also brought the problem of pirated editions, of which this is one, no. 48 from a larger series of ancient Roman sites, evidence of which, together with the inscription 'Dentro un Orto incontro la Chiesa di S. Eusebio', ('in a garden by the church of S. Eusebio') has been trimmed from this impression. The plan of the Acqua Guilia, inserted in the top left hand corner of Piranesi's original print has been removed, as have his signature letters and the corresponding key, identifying features of antiquarian interest. Piranesi's copyists and pirates were clearly less interested in the didactic value of his depictions. Piranesi's print has also been considerably reduced in size, making the result far less powerful. It was common for prints like this to be made into albums of 100 'Vedute di Roma' (or similar titles), which were published with the tourist market in mind in the later 18th through to the mid-19th centuries. This would therefore have made it one of the most recent prints mounted in the so-called King George IV album, which was acquired by the Dominion Museum in 1910.
Sources:
British Museum Collection online, https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3010482&partId=1&searchText=Piranesi+Acqua+Giulia&page=1
Getty Museum, 'Giovanni Battista Piranesi', http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/804/giovanni-battista-piranesi-italian-1720-1778/
John Wilton-Ely, The Mind and Art of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (London, 1978)
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art May 2019