Ideal reconstruction of the Capitol

Engraving, circa 1560, unsigned. Example of second state with the imprint of Gio Iacomo Rossi le stampa in Roma alla Pace.

Good proof, printed on laid paper datable to the mid-17th century, with margins, in good condition. 

Edition by Giovanni Giacomo De Rossi of this beautiful reconstruction of the ancient Capitol, engraved in the second half of the 16th century and based on the print in 3 sheets published by Antonio Salamanca around 1550 (Huelsen, 1907, pp. 40-41) and part of the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae. The composition is taken from Marcanova's drawings; Huelsen writes "The influence they had on the artists of the following period remained quite limited. But this largely depends on the fact that the newly finished Marcanova codex found its place in the library of a convent, where, precisely because of its preciousness, it remained accessible to few scholars. Nevertheless, ideal reconstructions of ancient Rome in the style of Marcanova's drawings are also found in later times, up to the middle of the sixteenth century".

Our sheet is unknown to Huelsen; it is certainly not the work of the De Rossi typography, but printed from an older plate, as also shown by the weak engraving. From a stylistic point of view the work could be engraved by Michele Lucchese; evident affinities in the sign with the Prospettive et Antichità di Roma, a series dedicated to Cardinal Guido Ascanio Sforza with about twenty plates representing imaginary architectures composed of arches, classical porticoes, often with squared flooring.

The work belongs to the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, the earliest iconography of ancient Rome. 

The Speculum originated in the publishing activities of Antonio Salamanca and Antonio Lafreri (Lafrery). During their Roman publishing careers, the two editors-who worked together between 1553 and 1563-started the production of prints of architecture, statuary, and city views related to ancient and modern Rome. The prints could be purchased individually by tourists and collectors, but they were also purchased in larger groups that were often bound together in an album. In 1573, Lafreri commissioned a frontispiece for this purpose, where the title Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae appears for the first time. Upon Lafreri's death, two-thirds of the existing copperplates went to the Duchetti family (Claudio and Stefano), while another third was distributed among several publishers. Claudio Duchetti continued the publishing activity, implementing the Speculum plates with copies of those "lost" in the hereditary division, which he had engraved by the Milanese Amborgio Brambilla. Upon Claudio's death (1585) the plates were sold - after a brief period of publication by the heirs, particularly in the figure of Giacomo Gherardi - to Giovanni Orlandi, who in 1614 sold his printing house to the Flemish publisher Hendrick van Schoel. Stefano Duchetti, on the other hand, sold his own plates to the publisher Paolo Graziani, who partnered with Pietro de Nobili; the stock flowed into the De Rossi typography passing through the hands of publishers such as Marcello Clodio, Claudio Arbotti and Giovan Battista de Cavalleris. The remaining third of plates in the Lafreri division was divided and split among different publishers, some of them French: curious to see how some plates were reprinted in Paris by Francois Jollain in the mid-17th century. Different way had some plates printed by Antonio Salamanca in his early period; through his son Francesco, they goes to Nicolas van Aelst's. Other editors who contributed to the Speculum were the brothers Michele and Francesco Tramezzino (authors of numerous plates that flowed in part to the Lafreri printing house), Tommaso Barlacchi, and Mario Cartaro, who was the executor of Lafreri's will, and printed some derivative plates. All the best engravers of the time - such as Nicola Beatrizet (Beatricetto), Enea Vico, Etienne Duperac, Ambrogio Brambilla, and others  - were called to Rome and employed for the intaglio of the works.

All these publishers-engravers and merchants-the proliferation of intaglio workshops and artisans helped to create the myth of the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, the oldest and most important iconography of Rome. The first scholar to attempt to systematically analyze the print production of 16th-century Roman printers was Christian Hülsen, with his Das Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae des Antonio Lafreri of 1921. In more recent times, very important have been the studies of Peter Parshall (2006) Alessia Alberti (2010), Birte Rubach and Clemente Marigliani (2016). 

Bibliografia

cfr. C. Marigliani, Lo splendore di Roma nell’Arte incisoria del Cinquecento, pp. 105-105; C. Huelsen, La Roma Antica di Ciriaco d’Ancona disegni inedita del secolo XV pubblicati ed illustrate da Christian Huelsen, 1907, pp. 40-41; P. Picardi, Perino del Vaga Michele Lucchese e il Palazzo di Paolo III al Campidoglio, pp. 89-101.