This page was created by Alexis Kratzer. The last update was by Zoe Langer.
View of the Basilica of San Sebastiano fuori le Mura on the Appian Way
In fact, one of Piranesi’s earliest etchings (above) was a small view of the church included in the travel book Varie Vedute di Roma Antica, e Moderna, Disegnate e Intagliate da Celebri Autori, published by bookseller and printer Fausto Amidei in 1748 in Rome. With its small size, wide margins, numerous images “designed and engraved by the most celebrated artists,” and lack of explanatory text, this guidebook provided a visual itinerary of the city. Piranesi’s small views continued to be reprinted for the numerous editions of the Varie Vedute, contributing to his visibility and status as one of the “celebrated artists” in Rome. In these same years, he launched the Vedute di Roma, including this view of San Sebastiano (c. 1750).
While both of Piranesi’s early views of the church were principally aimed at tourists, they are substantially different in content, style, and format. The large folio size combined with the perspective from the street in the Vedute di Roma places viewers much closer to the church, as though they are about to enter it. Populated by baying donkeys, beggars, ciceroni, tourists, and pilgrims, the street scene is full of movement and sound, and the wild gestures of the figures and high contrast of light and shadow increase the drama. By contrast, the bird’s eye view of the smaller view creates distance between the church and viewers, making them observers and the architectural space an object of study.
Both views highlight the architectural features of the church, such as the chapels, campanile, and colonnaded portico of the façade. Though it was founded in the fourth century, the San Sebastiano we see in Piranesi’s views is fundamentally Baroque. Cardinal Scipione Borghese commissioned the architects of his Villa, Flaminio Ponzio and Giovanni Vasanzio, to redesign the church in the early seventeenth century. Piranesi’s later view reflects the Baroque architecture of the church through dramatic lighting effects. Yet, the façade is entirely in shadow, almost hidden from view in the corner of the composition, and the Via Appia is illuminated instead. This focus echoes Piranesi’s fascination with the tombs located along the Appian Way, such as the Tomb of Cecilia Metella, which he specifies in this view of the tomb in the Antichità Romane is close to San Sebastiano. By linking these two prints, Piranesi goes beyond the pocketbook guides, such as that by Amidei, by creating a virtual tour of Rome across the volumes of his published works. (ZL)
To see this image in the Vedute di Roma, volume 16 of Piranesi’s Opere, click here.