Giovanni Battista Piranesi
(Italian, 1720–1778)
Veduta del Porto di Ripa Grande (View of the Port of Ripa Grande)
Object Details
Artist
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Date
1753
Medium
Etching on laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 16 x 24 3/8 inches (40.6 x 61.9 cm)
Sheet: 20 1/2 x 30 3/4 inches (52.1 x 78.1 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired thorugh the Museum Acquisition Fund
Object
Number
68.187
Unlike so many of Piranesi’s views that emphasize the vestiges of ancient Rome, his view of Romeâ€(…)
Unlike so many of Piranesi’s views that emphasize the vestiges of ancient Rome, his view of Rome’s Ripa Grande or Great Embankment salutes the mercantile bustle of his own present. His scene shows goods being unloaded from merchant ships that have made their way up the Tiber from Ostia on the Mediterranean.
(Andrew C. Weislogel, “Mirror of the City: The Printed View in Italy and Beyond, 1450–1940,” catalogue accompanying an exhibition organized by the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, curated by Andrew C. Weislogel and Stuart M. Blumin, and presented at the Johnson Museum August 11–December 23, 2012)
