- New
Arco Trionfale fatto erigere dal Serenis.mo Duca di Parma alle Glorie della Santità di N.S. Papa Clemente X...
| Reference: | S52134 |
| Author | Giovanni Battista FALDA |
| Year: | 1670 |
| Printed: | Rome |
| Measures: | 285 x 455 mm |
€1,250.00
- New
| Reference: | S52134 |
| Author | Giovanni Battista FALDA |
| Year: | 1670 |
| Printed: | Rome |
| Measures: | 285 x 455 mm |
€1,250.00
Description
ARCO TRIONFALE FATTO ERIGERE DAL SERENISSIMO SIG. DUCA DI PARMA ALLE GLORIE DELLA SANTITA' DI N.S. PAPA CLEMENTE X IN OCCASIONE DEL PASSAGGIO DELLA SANTITA' SUA AL POSSESSO DI SAN GIOVANNI IN LATERANO IL DI' VIII GIUGNO MDCLXX. Cav. D. Carlo Rainaldi Ingegnere di Sua Altezza Serenissima.
Etching, 1670, signed on the plate at the bottom "Gio. Battista Falda intagliò". From a project by the architect Carlo Rainaldi.
“The engraving by Giovan Battista Falda depicts the main front of the triumphal arch erected in Campo Vaccino on 7 June 1670, commissioned by Duke Ranuccio II Farnese to the then architect of the Farnese family, Carlo Rainaldi, at the same time architect of the Roman People, on the occasion of the traditional cavalcade of possession of the Lateran Basilica by the newly elected Pope Clement X Altieri (1670-1676), who ascended to the throne of Peter on 21 April of that year. The ephemeral structure is characterised by its strong development in height, accentuated by the choice to define the opening in the form of an architrave instead of the more traditional archivolted opening. The diagonally developed pilasters enriched by free-standing Corinthian columns appear highly scenographic, both surmounted by a Doric entablature, with a strong licentious connotation. The expressive freedom typical of the ephemeral Baroque apparatuses is well known, which legitimises any “oddity”, unless one wishes to recognize in this case the reference to the Solomonic order, traditionally defined by Corinthian columns supporting a Doric entablature. The statues in the round placed on the high pedestals in the opening and closing positions of the architectural apparatus represent Charity and Prudence, Justice and Virtue. Above, between two further symbolic figures, a complex splayed attic develops containing the dedicatory inscription and between broken tympanums the Altieri coat of arms supported by a pair of flying Fames. Six Farnese lilies are arranged on the sides of the papal coat of arms; these, together with those placed in the metopes of the Doric frieze, declare the ducal commission. The entire structure appears as the archetype of many altars built by the Roman architect in the following years in the churches of Gesù e Maria al Corso and of the Sudario in Rome: in this sense, the field of the ephemeral is distinguished by the experimental role it assumes, preparatory to constructed architecture. (A. Russo in “Il dovere della Festa” p. 33).
Magnificent work, printed on contemporary laid paper with margins, two wormholes in the right white margin, otherwise in excellent condition. Rare.
Bibliografia
Bartsch, "Le peintre graveur", XXI, 3. Fagiolo, "Corpus delle feste a Roma. I: La festa barocca", 482.
Giovanni Battista FALDA (Valduggia, Novara, 1643; Rome, 1678)
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Giovan Battista Falda, a native of Valduggia, was sent to Rome at the age of 14 and entrusted to the care of an uncle who pointed him out to Gian Lorenzo Bernini. But it was his meeting with printer Gian Giacomo De Rossi that marked a turning point in Falda's artistic career: in fact, his talent was directed by the publisher to the art of engraving. In De Rossi's workshop he could also appreciate the work of great engravers such as J. Callot, S. Della Bella and I. Silvestre; having completed his apprenticeship, he was benevolently received at the papal court, so much so that Alexander VII commissioned him to design the factories of the Castel Gandolfo residence. In 1665, Falda gave to the presses for the publisher De Rossi his masterpiece: the plates of the first book of the Nuovo Teatro delle fabbriche, et edificii, in prospettiva di Roma moderna sotto il felice pontificato di n. s. Alessandro VII, which was followed, between 1665 and '69, by the second and third. The work was intended to popularize the new image of Rome: the Pope, in fact, decided to open new streets, to embellish the city with fountains and monuments, also as a demonstration of the financial and cultural power of his family. With the Nuovo Teatro, as with the later collections devoted to fountains and palaces, Falda became the popularizer of these aspects; his engraved views, characterized by attention to both perspective rules and scenographic effects, skillfully exploit the vigor of line and the richness of the contrast between black and white, in keeping with the spatial criteria of Baroque art. The specifically popular and commercial aspect of the engraved views was skillfully exploited by the publisher De Rossi, who established an inseparable and effective partnership with Falda, to whom much of the printed production of the century in Rome was owed, with a fortune comparable only to that which would be paid to the work of Giovan Battista Piranesi. Falda's activity was tireless despite the brevity of the time span in which he worked (he died at the age of 35 on August 22, 1678 and was buried in S. Maria della Scala in Trastevere). By the end of his life he had engraved about 300 plates: many of these are preserved in Rome at the Calcografia nazionale.
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Giovanni Battista FALDA (Valduggia, Novara, 1643; Rome, 1678)
|
Giovan Battista Falda, a native of Valduggia, was sent to Rome at the age of 14 and entrusted to the care of an uncle who pointed him out to Gian Lorenzo Bernini. But it was his meeting with printer Gian Giacomo De Rossi that marked a turning point in Falda's artistic career: in fact, his talent was directed by the publisher to the art of engraving. In De Rossi's workshop he could also appreciate the work of great engravers such as J. Callot, S. Della Bella and I. Silvestre; having completed his apprenticeship, he was benevolently received at the papal court, so much so that Alexander VII commissioned him to design the factories of the Castel Gandolfo residence. In 1665, Falda gave to the presses for the publisher De Rossi his masterpiece: the plates of the first book of the Nuovo Teatro delle fabbriche, et edificii, in prospettiva di Roma moderna sotto il felice pontificato di n. s. Alessandro VII, which was followed, between 1665 and '69, by the second and third. The work was intended to popularize the new image of Rome: the Pope, in fact, decided to open new streets, to embellish the city with fountains and monuments, also as a demonstration of the financial and cultural power of his family. With the Nuovo Teatro, as with the later collections devoted to fountains and palaces, Falda became the popularizer of these aspects; his engraved views, characterized by attention to both perspective rules and scenographic effects, skillfully exploit the vigor of line and the richness of the contrast between black and white, in keeping with the spatial criteria of Baroque art. The specifically popular and commercial aspect of the engraved views was skillfully exploited by the publisher De Rossi, who established an inseparable and effective partnership with Falda, to whom much of the printed production of the century in Rome was owed, with a fortune comparable only to that which would be paid to the work of Giovan Battista Piranesi. Falda's activity was tireless despite the brevity of the time span in which he worked (he died at the age of 35 on August 22, 1678 and was buried in S. Maria della Scala in Trastevere). By the end of his life he had engraved about 300 plates: many of these are preserved in Rome at the Calcografia nazionale.
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