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• 1 2018-12-07T15:21:28-08:00 View of the Palazzo Odescalchi 21 Veduta del Palazzo Odescalchi plain 2023-06-19T08:56:53-07:00 Title: Veduta del Palazzo Odescalchi Key: 1. Palazzo Colonna. 2. Basilica de’ Santi XII. Apostoli. 3. Convento de’ Padri Minori Conventuali. 4. Palazzo Muti. 5. Convento de’ Padri Serviti di San Marcello. 6. Piazza de’ Santi Apostoli. Signature: Gio(vanni) Batt(ista) Piranesi Arch(itetto). F(ecit). Signature 2: Presso l’Autore a Strada Felice nel palazzo Tomati vicino alla Trinità de monti Title: View of Palazzo Odescalchi Key: 1. Palazzo Colonna. 2. Basilica de’ Santi XII Apostoli [Basilica of the Twelve Holy Apostles] 3. Monastery of the Minor Conventual Friars 4. Palazzo Muti. 5. Monastery of the Padri Serviti of San Marcello. 6. Piazza de’ Santi Apostoli. Signature: Made by the Architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Signature 2: Published by the Author on the Strada Felice in Palazzo Tomati near Trinità de Monti. This image is the final of seven engravings of urban palaces that are grouped together in this volume of the Vedute di Roma. In their composition, each of these images follows the model of the veduta in which the diagonal lines and layered spatial arrangements of Baroque stage design’s scena per angolo recede towards one vanishing point (Campbell 563). Each of these images also includes informative annotations, many of which, positioned at the vanishing point, lead a viewer’s eyes towards a specified distant spot. As such, these images merge visual vocabulary with the deictic form of annotated images.
  
  While this composition pulls a viewer’s eyes along the diagonal formed by the recently extended façade of the Odescalchi Palace, Piranesi’s annotations point to the ground and the sky in order to identify the piazza and numerous nearby structures. The palace’s six coats of arms interrupt both the pilasters that, contrary to custom, reach across the façade’s two levels and the strict linear design that extends toward the vanishing point. Their curved, irregular lines find a visual echo in the heavily-shaded burdens of indistinct organic matter that horses or mules transport away from the viewer in the foreground.
  
  In this image’s caption, Piranesi does not indicate the architects responsible for the palace’s recent expansion, Nicola Salvi (1697-1751) and Luigi Vanvitelli (1700-1773), whom he elsewhere names as “due chiarissimi Architetti dell’età nostra” (Piranesi, Drawings and Etchings Exhibition 116, 118). In considering this unsurprising lack of attribution, it is worth noting that Vanvitelli, one of the most successful architects in Rome, repeatedly referred to Piranesi as “mad.” In one case, he simply called him “perfettissimo matto in tutto” (cited in de Leeuw 259). Piranesi’s somewhat dutiful engravings of Rome’s sumptuous palaces betray none of his so-called madness, even if this image might indirectly suggest, through a lack of attribution, the personal conflicts that featured in much of his professional life. (JB)  
  
  To see this image in the Vedute di Roma, volume 16 of Piranesi’s Opere, click here.