This page was created by Alexis Kratzer.  The last update was by Jeanne Britton.

The Digital Piranesi

Interior View of Santa Maria Maggiore

As in the previous view, Piranesi here follows visual precedent and the traditional elements of the genre of the veduta in order to appeal to commercial demands of the print market. Santa Maria Maggiore was among the earliest group of etchings Piranesi published, which focused primarily on famous churches that attracted pilgrims, and antiquarians, and tourists, such as those we see in his foreground. The orderly procession of people and regimented columns that line the central nave is more characteristic of Piranesi’s contemporaries, particularly Giovanni Paolo Pannini’s view of the church interior (c. 1755), than the exaggerated perspective and dramatic action typical of his Vedute di Roma, especially those of ancient ruins. Broadly speaking, there is substantial evidence of the circulation, collaboration, and copying of drawings and prints between Piranesi and other vedutisti (Bevilacqua; Nevola 2016). A possible indication that Piranesi adapted Pannini’s work for this particular etching is the identical but reversed architecture of the composition, a process that occurs in printing, especially with a traced image or copy. The tomb sculpture of Pope Clement IX, with his notably outstretched arm in the gesture of benediction, appears on the left in Piranesi’s view. 

However, there are some differences between the two views. Piranesi’s shifts the perspective to the left in a more oblique manner. The rigidity of the perspective leads the eye to the baldacchino by Ferdinando Fuga, who also designed the façade of the church, and who Piranesi names in the previous exterior view’s title. Many of the modern additions to the church—the papal insignia of Alexander VI who, quite literally, lined the coffers of the ceiling with gold from the Americas, or the tapestries suspended from the ceiling—have been removed in favor of a focus on the building’s ancient architectural structure. The ionic columns with their flat entablature on the left are the only elements illuminated by a staggering bright light, while the rest the of the nave is relatively monochromatic. Beyond these more characteristic departures, the similarities between the works of Pannini and Piranesi in style, composition, and genre are evident.  

The simple title and lack of explanatory text further indicate that Piranesi’s print is a more traditional veduta like those of Pannini or Giuseppe Vasi. Referencing the work of other successful artists was common practice in terms of attracting buyers, as famous views of the same subject were often collected as a set. Possessing multiple prints of the same subject or by the same artist could add to the prestige of a collection. In fact, the views of Santa Maria Maggiore by Piranesi and Vasi appeared in the collection of the famous eighteenth-century antiquarian and bibliophile Alessandro Capponi (Battaglia 95-100). Piranesi added this interior view to the group (3 in total) in the 1760s during the later part of his career. Mario Bevilacqua suggests that these later etchings, which Piranesi added to views that had already achieved some success on the print market, provided an easy way to turn a profit. It is interesting to note that Pannini’s son, Francesco, adapted a select group of his father’s paintings into print for this reason, including this etching of Santa Maria Maggiore. In a parallel manner, Piranesi’s son Francesco, reprinted the Vedute di Roma in the posthumous edition of the Opere that was published in Paris by the Didot press in the 1830s (and forms the basis of this digital project). Transcending Piranesi’s time, these economies of print seem to have informed the publishers of this volume of the Opere, who also present the three prints of Santa Maria Maggiore as a cohesive set, and thus perhaps, a more marketable product to an international clientele. (ZL)  

To see this image in the Vedute di Roma, volume 16 of Piranesi’s Opere, click here.

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