An event of a particular kind, the exhibition organised by Mario Belvilacqua and set up in the
Museo del Corso di Roma offers a glimpse of the much admired, studied and reproduced works of the famous Venetian landscape artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720 - 1778). As a profound student of Roman archeology , he packed his writings and views with his passionate love of ancient art and the city that had hosted him. An anticipator of the modern scientific archeological method, Piranesi offers to viewers of his engravings enthusiastic views of the Capital. He exalts its thousand years of history, the fascination that has made it the Eternal City, and its influence on the collective imagination of all who visit it.
Promoted by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Roma, the exhibition dedicated to Piranesi presents us with unedited works, early engravings belonging to the family of the Dukes of Wellington.
This testifies to that curiosity and interest which the image of the city has excited in all Europe.
We are talking of the fashion of the Grand Tour , of which Rome was the irreplacable goal, for her historic beauty and cultural vivacity, concentrated around the papal court. So indirectly this exhibition becomes an occasion for celebrating the glory of Rome and emphasising the eminent cultural role it has always played in Italy, as purveyer of classical values in art, together with modernity of life.
This passion to discover ancient festivals pushed Piranesi on the one hand to make real reproductions and virtual reconstructions of things seen and studied (collection first in the Work "Views of Rome" of I748 and successively in four precious volumes of 1756 which must go under the title of "Roman Antiquities").
It pushed him, on the other hand , to conduct careful, scrupulous archeological enquiries that enabled him to elaborate real compendiums of modern archeology, like the work of 1761 "Of the magnificence and architecture of the Romans".
Parallel to this exhibition of engravings ad acquaforte, that of Jean Paul Troili aims at suggesting Piranesi's qualities as architect, quoting the works executed by him for the city of Rome: the piazza dei cavalieri di Malta all'Aventino, the church of Santa Maria del Prorato and the design of the interior of the Caffè degli Inglesi in Pizza di Spagna.
These are unique experiences of that classicism full of inspiration and voluptuousness of the architect studying Mogliano Veneto who at the same time could symultaneously confront the vestiges of the imperial age of the city , as well as these more recent ones of Roman baroque. It is from this marriage that was born a singular and refined style, of great formal polish, but also rich in particular "stylistic licenses".
Besides the engravings and drawings exhibited, it is possible also to dwell on the comments, and the sketches, projects reported in the so-called "Notebook of Modena", for the first time on loan and exhibited to the public . This serves to demonstrate his fervent work , his eye and imagination, appreciative of the peculiar characteristics of Roman architecture .
Finally as a corollary to this, there is a section that, through three dimensional models, illustrates and reconstructs his projects that remained only on paper. But they are not for this reason less interesting and fascinating, and now we can enjoy again the taste and refinement of a learned creator and illustrator of ancient and new spatiality.
