Author: Jean Barbault (ca. 1718-1762), and Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778)
Title: [Antique print, etching, Piranesi] Frammenti della Camera sepolcrale dirimpetto alla Chiesa di S. Sebastiano fuori delle Mura (Fragments tomb chamber), published 1756-1784, 1 p.
Description: Plate XLV from the II out of four volumes collection Le Antichità Romane collecting plates by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, firstly published by Angelo Rotili in Rome between 1756 and 1757. The second edition appeared in 1784. Original wide margins, no traces of binding or folding. Two plates, one with the illustration, the second below with the description.Titled below: 'Frammenti della Camera sepolcrale dirimpetto alla Chiesa di S. Sebastiano fuori delle Mura.'Signed on the bottom left and right: 'Piranesi Archit.o dis. ed inc.' and 'Barbault scolpì le Fig.e'.As Flaminio Vacca recalls in his Memorie (Vacca 1594, n. 82), in the anonymous sepulchral chamber excavated in 1750 in front of the church of San Sebastiano fuori le Mura “many statues were found in a place adorned with mixed floors, with beautiful compartments; and many burned medals, as well as many mosaics peeled off the wall”. Piranesi transmits a memory of it in these two plates, using the expedient of a fictitious exhibition of objects arranged on shelves already observed for the fragments and inscriptions of the major sepulchral chamber of the Arrunzi [...] (Mariasole Garacci, ICG, Rome).Translated title: Fragments from the tomb chamber opposite the Church of San Sebastiano fuori delle Mura [St. Sebastian outside the Walls] / Fragmenten uit de grafkamer tegenover de kerk van San Sebastiano fuori della Mura [ St. Sebastiaan buiten de muren]. Etching with some interventions in burin on hand laid paper, with broad margins; plate with illustration: 430 x 512 mm; text plate: 45 x 506 mm; total 559 x 803 mm; some tiny holes within plate, somewhat frayed end margins, otherwise in great condition.

Keywords: Archeology|Architecture|History|Iconography|Italy|Mythology|Rome|Topography & Travel|travel