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ARITU

THE LIBRARY

BRIGHAM YOUN'^ UNIVERSITY

PROVO, UTAH

^v/

PIRANESI

PORTRAIT OF GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI.

PIRANESI

ARTHUR SAMUEL

LONDON
B.TBATSFORa94.HIGH HOLBORN

NEW YORK
•> CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS'^

MCMX

THE LIBRARY

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

PROVO, UTAH

TO THE READER

For some years past I have admired and
collected the etchings of Piranesi, and feeling
a desire to know more about this wonderful
man and his son Francesco, I have gathered
together such facts as are available. The
result is this monograph which deals not
only with the etchings which are, for the
most part, of views of Rome and its ancient
remains, but also with the influence the
etchings have had upon the architecture
and decorative schemes associated with the
names of the brothers Adam, and upon the
furniture designs of Chippendale, Sheraton
and their successors.

The monograph must, however, be read

only on the distinct understanding that the
composition of its pages contains nothing
original so far as I am concerned. If the
result of the perusal be satisfactory to the
reader the credit will not be mine ; if, on
the other hand, it be unsatisfactory I shall
be ready to accept responsibility. I have
levied toll upon every available work of
authority, standard or otherwise, in English,
French and Italian, and whatever I have
found I have taken, lock, stock and barrel,
and with such catholicity that, for fear of
placing too exhausting a strain upon my
printer's supply of subsidiary types, I have
not given references, and I have not used as
many inverted commas as I ought other-
wise to have done.

A few reproductions are given in this
volume for the purpose of conveying an
idea of the general character of Piranesi's
etchings. It should be borne in mind,

Vll

however, that the original etchings suffer
in being reduced from their very large size
to the small proportions of the present
reproductions. In most cases the original
etchings measure not less than 25 inches
by 15 inches, many indeed are much larger.
My publisher, Mr. Herbert Batsford, has
taken considerable trouble to collate the
etchings, the list of which I give, and I
hope the student will find it of service.
Every effort has been made to render it
as perfect as possible. I have to thank
him for many valuable suggestions and for
the great pains he has taken in the pro-
duction of the book.

ARTHUR SAMUEL.

48 Montagu Square,

Marble Arch, W.

October 1910.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Reproductions in this volume are given for
the purpose of conveying a rough idea of the
character of Piranesi's Etchings. The originals
from which they have been taken are very large,
in many cases they measure 25 x 15 inches. The
reduction in size, resulting from the process of
reproduction, has decreased the particular effects
which distinguish the originals.

PLATE

1. PORTRAIT OF GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI,
AGED 58 YEARS, BY GUISSEPPE CADES ;

ENGRAVED BY FRANCESCO PIRANESI . Frontispiece

II. STATUE OF PIRANESI BY ANGELINI, IN THE

CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA AVENTINA . facing p. I

III. ENGRAVED CATALOGUE ISSUED BY PIRANESI IN

MAY 1764, WHEN ONLY 64 PLATES OF THE

VEDUTE HAD APPEARED ... ,j 4

IV. ARCH OF CONSTANTINE AT ROME . . foUozuing p. II
V. TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE AT P^STUM . . „ 1 4

VI. THE COLOSSEUM AT ROME ... ,,27

VII. TEMPLE OF THE SIBYL AT TIVOLI, SOMETIMES
CALLED THE TEMPLE OF VESTA OR OF
HERCULES ...... ,,40

PLATE
VIII.

IX.

XI.

XII.

XIII.
XIV.
XV.

XVI.

XVII.

XVIII.

XIX.

XX.

XXI.

XXII.
XXIII.
XXIV.

XXV.

Jacing p.

»>

follonving p.

facing p.

folloiving p.

facing p.

102

following p. 1 04

COMPOSITION FROM " OPERE VARIE "

CANDELABRUM FROM " VASl CANDELABRI,
ETC* ••.••*

TRIPOD AND VASE FROM " VASI CANDE-
LABRI, ETC." ....

DETAILS FROM " VASI CANDELABRI, ETC."

VASES AND TRIPOD FROM " VASI CANDE-
LABRI, ETC." ....

PONTE MOLLE, OVER THE TIBER

TRIPOD FROM "VASI CANDELABRI, ETC.'

INTERIOR OF A PRISON, FROM " CARCERI
d'iNVENZIONE," first STATE, I75O

FROM " CARCERI d'iNVENZIONE," SECOND
STATE OF THE PREVIOUS PLATE

FROM "CARCERI d'iNVENZIONE "

ST. PETEr's at ROME

from an original drawing in the
british museum

temple of neptune at p^stum

fontana di trevi

villa albani, near rome .

Trajan's column

IMAGINARY SCENE IN THE APPIAN WAY following p,
DOGANA DI TERRA, AT ROME . . „

facing p.

109
IIO
118

125

131

141

144
164

174
180

PLATE II.

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LVIIVLUKNTIX'

STATUE OF PIRANESI IN THE CHURCH OF SANTA \fARIA IN AVENTINO.

lootft;^

PIRANESl

" My two friends came as expected, also Missie, and
staid till half-past two. Promised Sharpe the set of
Piranesi's views in the dining parlour. They belonged to
my Uncle, so I do not like to sell them." — Sir Walter
Scott's Diary, Feb. 14, 1826 (Lockhart's Life).

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, the etcher
of the views which hung in Sir Walter
Scott's dining parlour, was born at Venice
on October 4, 1720, not 1707 as stated
by Michaud, and he died at Rome on
November 9, 1778, of a trifling illness
rendered fatal by neglect. His father was
a man in humble circumstances, a mason,
perhaps a foreman mason, and familiarly
known by the nickname " Torbo celega " —
" the foolish blind man," for he was blind
of one eye. Temanza, a fellow-pupil with
Giovanni under their master. Scalfarotto,

describes the father as a shoemaker, but that
description is unconfirmed and should be
disregarded. Giovanni's mother was Laura,
sister of the engineer and architect Lucchesi,
who had constructed waterworks and had
built the Church of San Giovanni Novo at
Venice, and it was from his uncle Lucchesi
that Piranesi received his first lessons in
Art, but, says Temanza, as both were of a
" stravagante " nature, they soon quarrelled
and parted.

Towards the end of 1737 Piranesi,
who had been taking instruction from
Onofrio Mascati, began to dream of Rome.
Francesca Corraghi, the young girl to
whom he was attached, had on the death of
her parents come from Rome to live with
friends at Venice. She fired his ambition,
she spoke to him of Rome, of Rome with its
infinite Art treasures, and persuaded him to
go thither and try his fortune. Notwith-
standing his parents' opposition, he persisted
in his determination to obtain their consent

to follow the career marked out for him
by Francesca and to leave Venice. From
earliest childhood he had been famed for
uncommon beauty of countenance and for
extraordinarily precocious powers. At the
age of eight he was able to portray the
architectural beauties of Venice. At ten
he could construct from his own imagina-
tion designs for buildings, and it is said that
Venetian masons even then took ideas from
his drawings. At fifteen his name was
known on the Rialto, and his father was
confident he would make his way success-
fully in the trade which he himself followed.
By the time, however, that he had reached
his seventeenth year Giovanni had given
such ample proof of ability and aptitude
that his father was finally induced to send
the boy to Rome to study architecture and
engraving, and although it was Francesca
Corraghi who had inspired him to go for-
ward and strike out for himself, while he was
at Rome at work on the Campo Vaccino

she threw him over to marry the Conte
d'Amalfi. Furnished with an allowance
from his father of six Spanish piastres a
month — about five shillings in English
money — Giovanni reached Rome in 1738,
and began his studies under Valeriani, Vasi,
Scalfarotto, and other masters.

Through Ricci of Belluno (born 1680)
and Pannini (born 1691) was transmitted
to Piranesi that taste for imaginative land-
scape painting cultivated by Gellee (born
1600, and better known as Claude de
Lorrain). Gellde had stimulated Ricci and
Pannini to devote their talents to imagina-
tive compositions, using as materials the
moss-clad ruins with which Rome was
covered, and which served, in Rome as well
as in the Campagna, as habitations for a
picturesque population of ragged beggars,
robbers, and outlaws. The stairs of the
Colosseum itself had long been hidden under
a thick growth of clematis, and the forest of
ilex and myrtle in the Baths of Caracalla

PLATE III.

rridlf ".3 .

ENGRAVED CATALOGUE ISSUED BY PIRANESI IN I764,

was still existing in 1818, some years after
Piranesi's death, when Shelley, then on his
way to the villa at Este lent him by Byron,
composed his Prometheus Unbound beneath
its shadow.

Ricci had been Valeriani's master, and from
Valeriani Piranesi absorbed the style of Ricci,
and, no doubt, some of his taste for romantic
subjects, witness such of Piranesi's plates as
are creations of fancy. But the work he
turned out with the assistance of his own
force of imagination and his mastery of the
etching tools was superior to that of Ricci
or of Pannini. Valeriani was a great master
of perspective, and Piranesi owes much to
him, as does he also to Vasi, the Sicilian,
who gave him a thorough knowledge of
the art of etching ; but Vasi's engravings,
although full of careful execution and
quality, look insipid when compared
with the bold work in Piranesi's plates.
It was Vasi who first filled the young
Goethe with a desire to visit Italy, and

the very engravings of Vasi which thus
inspired Goethe now hang in the Goethe-
Haus at Frankfort.

When little more than twenty years of
age, Piranesi, fancying that his instructor
Vasi was hiding from him the true secret
of the uses of aqua fortis, actually at-
tempted to murder him. According to
Biagi, Piranesi's suspicions were not entirely
baseless, as Vasi had become jealous of his
pupil. Vasi appears to have treated the
matter lightly, for it ended in his simply
turning Piranesi out of his studio.

Tall in person, of dark complexion, with
restless bright eyes, despondent and exult-
ant by rapid changes, imaginative, jealous,
perhaps vain to a high degree, always
eager to annoy his neighbour, the young
Piranesi vividly recalls Benvenuto Cellini
in temperament and character. It is not
indeed to be wondered at that a man so
generously endowed by nature with an
intensely vivid imagination, should have

been highly sensitive and irritable. Nor
must it be forgotten that men possessed of
real force of character are never altogether
pleasant in disposition. Strongly conscious
of his own power, he thought himself
capable of great things, valuing himself
highly, and brooking neither opposition
nor contradiction, nor indeed anything that
he suspected to contain the slightest tinge
of disparagement of his work or of
his opinion, let alone of himself
personally. Throughout the whole of his
life Piranesi never lost an opportunity of
eagerly advancing more than half-way to
meet any person who had the slightest
inclination for a quarrel, and he was per-
petually involved in some sort of dispute.
Even the Delia Magnificenza ed Architettura
de Romania with 44 plates and 200 pages
of letterpress in Latin and Italian (a work
which added considerably to his fame
and which gained for him the " croce
equestre "), was merely Piranesi's rejoinder

in a controversy with Marietta, the author
of Delle Gemme incise degli Antichi,

An argument had been started in the
London Investigator in 1755, and to the
discussion Piranesi contributed this work in
defence of his assertion that Rome owed her
monuments to Etruscan and not to Greek
models, and that the Romans were not, as
stated by the Investigator^ a barbarous people
before the conquest of Greece, or, in the
words of the Investigator^ " a gang of mere
plunderers sprung from those who had been
but a little while before their conquest
of Greece naked thieves and runaway
slaves." As was his habit with every-
thing in which he took an interest, Piranesi
threw himself into an exhaustive study of
the question. The result of his researches
was that he became convinced that the
Romans had taken their architectural
models from the Etruscans rather than
from the Greeks, and that long before the
Romans had invaded Greece the principal

Roman temples, aqueducts, and roads had
been magnificently built and with a correct
knowledge of architecture and engineering,
but that after the conquest greater splendour
had been introduced into architectural work
in Italy. This view he henceforward upheld
under all circumstances against every one
and on every occasion, never losing an
opportunity of proclaiming his opinion on
the subject aggressively and of championing
it, when proclaimed, even to the limit of
his powers of acrimonious expression. He
was quite wrong in his views about Paestum
(page 14) in this connection, though pro-
bably right in what he said about Rome.
So important was the influence of these
particular opinions on his work that it may
perhaps be permitted to digress for a
moment in order to consider how far modern
research in Rome itself will be able to sup-
port Piranesi's views, seeing that during
the 130 years that have elapsed since the
etcher's death extensive explorations have

been pushed forward in the Basilica iEmilia.
These excavations are likely to have con-
siderable bearing on Piranesi's theories,
because near the Basilica is the Curia Julia,
and not far from the Curia Julia is the spot
upon which was built, about the year 640
B.C., the Curia Hostilia. When the time
comes for laying bare the site of the Curia
Julia modern archaeologists anticipate that
slabs will be found bearing records of the
decrees of the Senate in the days of Tar-
quinius Prisons. These same slabs will be
those known to have been removed from
the Curia Hostilia and placed in the Curia
Julia, and if they do actually bear Etruscan
as well as Roman inscriptions they will
afford strong evidence in support of
Piranesi's opinions ; for, according to some
authorities, Tarquinius Prisons, who greatly
increased the number and dignity of the
Senate, was not only of Etruscan birth,
but it was he who conquered the twelve
nations of Etruria. There is every reason,

therefore, to assume that he was familiar
with Etruscan characteristics and with the
beauties of the national architecture, and
that they appealed to one, himself of
Etruscan birth, with the consequence that
he drew freely upon Etruscan models for
ideas. Piranesi contended that, with such
assistance, Tarquinius was enabled to lay
the foundations of the Capitol, and to adorn
Rome with the buildings of restrained
magnificence which, at the end of several
centuries, were regarded by Romans of
Nero's day with admiration greater than
that inspired by the buildings erected by
that stupendous artist himself The Cloaca
of Rome has always been said to have been
built by the Etruscans in the time of the
Roman kings, for the Etruscans were among
the first in the use of the Arch,^ and if

^ Professor Flinders Petrie discovered at Dendera in
Egypt a passage 6 feet wide covered w^ith barrel vaults
dating from 3500 B.C. This is perhaps the earliest known
example of the Arch. (See Architecture of Greece and Rome^
by Anderson h Phene Spiers, p. 147.)

Other work dating from the days of Tar-
quinius Priscus can be brought to light
bearing bilingual inscriptions and treated
with Etruscan feeling, at any rate the
hypothesis of the Etruscan origin of the
architecture of Rome urged by Piranesi
will be placed almost beyond the region
of doubt.

After the rupture with Vasi, Piranesi
made his way back to Venice and en-
deavoured to earn a living there as an
architect, studying at the same time under
Tiepolo, who gave him instruction in
historical painting. With Polanzani he
studied figure design. Attaining, however,
little financial success at Venice, he returned
to Rome, and thence went to Naples to paint.
But it soon became clear to him that his
powers did not lie in that branch of art.

Interest in archaeological matters was the
chief reason for his journey to Naples. He
visited Paestum and Pompeii, and also
Herculaneum, which had been discovered

in 171 1 by Charles in. of the Two Sicilies.
Although the Theatre at Herculaneum was
below the level of the ground and in
almost total darkness, his imagination and
instinctive knowledge realised what the
whole had originally been like. Using
such information as the discoverers had
by that time acquired, he made a plan of
the Theatre, supplying details of which there
was no record, according to his own ideas
of what the structure had been. In after
years it was his intention to publish
etchings of these researches, and he had
planned to proceed with them as soon as
he had finished the etchings of Hadrian's
Villa at Tivoli. In this he was forestalled
by death. He died while he was at work
upon the plates of Hadrian's Villa. The
etchings of Herculaneum were eventually
finished and published, in 1783, after his
death, by his son Francesco, and dedicated
to Gustavus III. of Sweden. There are
evidences, however, that Francesco in this

connection made use of Palladio's Le Terme
del Romani.

Perhaps Hadrian's Villa was the subject
to which he devoted more time than to
any other subject he took in hand. It
covered an exceedingly large area, but he
succeeded in arriving at a general plan of
the entire Villa and in reconstituting it on
paper, using for a basis such remains as
existed. As time went on further dis-
coveries were made, and Piranesi's plans,
confirmed by fresh and elaborate measure-
ments carried out by others, were regarded
as masterpieces of inspiration.

From Naples he went to Passtum ; he
there surveyed the Temple of Neptune,
and adduced what he called the unmis-
takable signs of Etruscan work present in
that building to support his argument and
opinion that the Etruscans had produced
fine buildings long before the settlement of
the Greeks in that part of Italy. Besides
the Temple of Neptune there are two other

temples, and they are referred to in detail
farther on in these pages (see page 128).
They are all certainly of Doric origin. Ap-
parently no ancient writer mentions them,
and they were unknown to archaeologists
until they were referred to and described in
1745 by Antonini. Piranesi either did not
know of or ignored the fact that, from a
period dating, roughly, as far back as 750
years before the Augustan age, all Southern
Italy was sown with important Dorian
Greek cities. There were Crotona and
Sybaris on the Bay of Tarentum, Paestum
itself being a colony of Sybaris. Locri
on the Adriatic was another great Dorian
Greek city, and all of them were adorned
with large temples similar to those at
Passtum. These temples differed materially
from the Etruscan temples in the north of
Italy ; not only were they much larger than
the Etruscan temples, but they had at least
one other very distinct difference, for while
the columns in Doric temples had no bases

Vitruvius states that there were bases to
the columns in Etruscan temples.

Leaving Naples, Piranesi came north again
to Rome, determined to settle in that city and
to devote himself to engraving and etching.

At Rome he lived in great straits, which
were intensified by his refusal to obey his
father's wish that he should return to Venice
and start afresh in his native city, the result
of this refusal being the thrifty reprisal often
associated with parental displeasure, the stop-
page of the son's allowance.

Months passed in desultory but useful
study of etching and painting, and although
Piranesi evidently desired to be able to
paint, he finally realised that he did not
possess the necessary ability, and gave up
the attempt for good. No examples of
painting by Piranesi are recorded.

Thrown on his own resources, he directed
all his powers to etching, and in about
1 74 1, when he was twenty-one years old,
published four romantic compositions of

ruins framed in a decoration of scrolls and
volutes of the type peculiar to the period.
They are not dated, but they indicate
where Piranesi was living ; on them is
his address — near the French Academy,
in the Corso, opposite the Palazzo Doria
Pamphili. These four compositions are
often found in the volume entitled
Opere Varie published by Bouchard in
1750. In 1748 were published the first of
his etchings which are dated ; he called
them Anttchith Romane de Tempi delta
Repubblica e de' primi Imperatori^ etc.
{Arc hi Trionfali Antic hi Tempi^ etc.).
Roma 1748. They include 30 plates of
views of several Roman buildings in the
provinces, such as the Amphitheatre of
Verona, and the Triumphal Arches of Pola
in Istria, of Ancona, and of Rimini. He
dedicated them to the literary antiquary
Bottari, private chaplain to the etcher's
patron, Pope Benedict xiv. Monsignore
Bottari was the discoverer of the twelfth-

century manuscript of The Vision of
Alberico^ from which, says Isaac D' Israeli,
Dante had borrowed or stolen the Inferno.
These Antichita plates were reissued, under
the same date, with the title altered to
Alcune vedute di Archi Trionfali^ etc., and
two fresh plates by Francesco were added.

Fascinated even from the first moment of
his arrival by the silent stones and shattered
monuments of Rome, Piranesi worked with
the utmost diligence. Intensely interested
by what he saw, his heart and soul were
set aglow with a feeling partly of pride and
partly of awe at the splendour he saw or
imagined around him ; and it is indelibly
stamped upon his earliest as on his latest
work that his aim was not so much to
imitate as to describe, to explain, to compel
others to become conscious of, and to value,
the noble beauty which was visible to himself.

He claimed that his etchings would
bring him undying fame. " I do dare
to believe,'* he wrote, " that, like Horace,

I have executed a work which will go
down to posterity, and which will endure
for as long as there are men desirous of
knowing all that has survived until our day,
of the ruins of the most famous city of the
universe." This is pompous. But at least
the example of Milton may be quoted in
Piranesi's defence. In his Reasons of Church
Government Milton in 1641-42 declares his
resolution to take full time for meditation
on a fit subject, and he informs the world
that it may expect the production of a great
poem from his pen "... a work not to be
raised from the heat of youth or the vapour
of wine, . . . nor to be obtained by the
invocation of Dame Memory and her seven
daughters, but by devout prayer to that
Eternal Spirit who can enrich with all
utterance, ... to this must be added
industrious and select reading, study,
observation and insight into all seemly
opinions, arts and affairs.'' Piranesi was
self-conscious in good company. In the

Preface of the Antichith Ro?7tane he says :
" When I first saw the remains of the
ancient buildings of Rome lying as they
do in cultivated fields or in gardens and
wasting away under the ravages of time, or
being destroyed by greedy owners who sell
them as materials for modern buildings, I
determined to preserve them for ever by
means of my engravings, and the reigning
Pope Benedict xiv. assisted me with his
generosity and encouraged me in my labours."
Quite without means, he set poverty at
defiance. He worked day and night,
denying himself the proper sleep which a
straw mattress — his sole worldly possession
— might have afforded him. Juvenal's
description of Codrus with his one bed
and his statue of a Centaur, in a garret
among the pigeons' nests, aptly fits the
conditions under which Piranesi lived —

" . . . quern tegula sola tuetur
a pluvia, molles ubi reddunt ova columbae."

But, toiling with enthusiasm and with un-

conquerable perseverance, he burst through
all difficulties. Models and instructors
being beyond his means, he worked
from grotesque figures and sights at hand
in the streets, using cripples, and even the
meat hanging in the butchers' shops, as
studies. Some of these drawings were
known to exist in the collection of Prince
Rezzonico. Ragged beggars were special
favourites with him for a similar purpose,
and of their picturesqueness, reminiscent of
Callot, he afterwards made effective use in
many of his plates ; in some of the plates
the costumes of the period add interest.

A manuscript Life of Piranesi is said to
have been in the possession of Priestley &
Weale, publishers, of London, in 1830,
but no trace can now be found of it.
The details of his life, however, are written
in his etchings ; without their aid there is
little enough to be told about him person-
ally. In his plates alone stand the records
of each day's acts and thoughts, but the

very copiousness of his output shows at
once how little time was available wherein
anything could happen to Piranesi in
matters outside his workroom. Such
incidents indeed as did occur were closely
concerned with his etching needle. They
consisted mostly of quarrels and arguments ;
as a rule they were about petty matters,
and, unfortunately, with almost any person
with whom Piranesi came in contact. The
physical effort of producing by his own
hand a work of great magnitude, and at
the same time indulging in a personal
disagreement or dispute about artistic
technicalities, with this or that friend
or foe, amply filled up Piranesi's days.
When he was not working and disputing
simultaneously he was disputing only, and
when not disputing he was at work,
etching with a savage fierceness in
defence of his latest contention.

His mark was made immediately
the impressions from his first plates ap-

peared. Assisted by a brilliant needle
and a delicate touch, he conveyed his own
enthusiasm to all who examined his work.
At Rome it was soon perceived that he
possessed the skill to deal with architectural
subjects in a manner incomparably superior
to that in which such subjects had hitherto
been treated. His fiery, contemptuous,
quarrelsome disposition had made him con-
spicuous ; a singularly facile and vigorous
pencil now gained him distinction, and the
growing fashion for archaeological research
was confirmed, if not set, by Piranesi.

His plates appeared with inscriptions
disclosing a wealth of arch^ological in-
formation, and these inscriptions Bianconi,
who wrote Piranesi's obituary notice in
the Antologia Romana^ states were the
outcome of assistance from Bottari and
the learned Jesuit Father Contucci. But
various authorities, among others Tipaldo,
contradict this allegation, and Piranesi's
son, in after years, put forward docu-

mentary evidence to prove that not only
was Piranesi quite capable of composing
the inscriptions, but that he was well versed
in a knowledge of both Latin and Greek.
A quarrel with Volpi, respecting some
temples, also proved his antiquarian know-
ledge, and, on the whole, the evidence
goes to show that the inscriptions may be
attributed to the etcher himself.

His excitable nature, stimulated by an
ardent admiration for the remains of Rome,
urged Piranesi to work with such impetu-
osity that, frequently, he had not the patience
to devote any time to making studies or
sketches. In many cases he simply drew
his subject on the plate and completed it al-
most entirely by etching in aqua fortis, and
with little assistance from the graver. This
method accounts for the rapidity with which
he threw off great numbers of etchings,
most of them very large in size and crowded
with architectural detail expressed in a
manner calculated to arrest and retain the

attention of the average man. He took
great care to discover the point of view
from w^hich his subject would be regarded
by the ordinary spectator. A master of
perspective, he was able to carry con-
viction to the least technical eye. In the
estimation of his fellow-craftsmen he was
distinguished by the peculiar skill which
enabled him to convey the effect of dis-
tance by gradation of tone. With him the
swelling line was employed continually for
the purpose of obtaining bold contrasts, and
this is the reason why his etchings gain so
greatly in effect if hung on a wall as pictures,
and at a distance, as compared with the effect
produced on the eye when they are examined
in a folio. Like Pannini, the chief point
in his plates is usually the foreground ;
Piranesi throws great masses of buildings
straight into the eye of the spectator.

Boldness of imagination and force of
execution enabled him even to increase the
majesty of a subject under treatment. He

drew the side of a building or a row of
columns in such a way that an effect of in-
terminable distance was obtained; and to add
solemnity to ruins he cast over them festoons
of weird foliage, now like ivy and now
like seaweed. Dense foliage actually existed
among the ruins ; the monuments, aqueducts,
tombs, and palaces of Rome were indeed
covered with a jungle-like growth of trees,
and Piranesi made full use of the romantic
effect lent by the vegetation. The Rome
of classical days still presented in the
eighteenth century a mournful scene not
alone of ruined but also of neglected mag-
nificence. The noble splendour of her
architecture was almost obliterated, and little
was left of stately streets, once the pride of
Augustus himself, to bear silent witness to
having endured the blows of every indignity.
That which had been the palace of the
Caesars Totila had reduced to a mound of
rubbish, and the wind had sown it with a
forest of tangled shrubs. The Forum, to

whose decrees the whole world had bowed,
was Cows' Field, and men spoke of the
Capitol as Goats' Hill. Aqueducts, marvels
of construction, bridged a desolated Com-
pagna with such spans as had survived
mutilation by Vitiges. No more than a
third of the Colosseum remained ; it had
been in turn a fortress, a stone quarry,
a woollen mill, and a saltpetre factory.
Smothered in weeds it had at length, with
420 different kinds of plants, trees, and
shrubs, provided material for a botanical
treatise entitled "The Flora of the Colos-
seum." A plantation of wild fig trees
covered the Arch of Titus. The Tiber
had from time to time flooded Rome
and earthquakes had shaken her to the
foundations. But it was the hand of man
that had done the worst. Norman Guiscard
had burnt the city from end to end and from
side to side, the Constable of Bourbon had
sacked it ; Lombards, Goths, Vandals, and
Saracens had laid it waste. The builders of

St. Peter's had pulled down the Septizonium
of Severus and had used its stones for their
own purposes, and the very tomb of the
Saint was indebted for a portion of its
embellishment to columns cast from bronze
knaved from the roof of the Pantheon.
The Popes and their kinsfolk had desecrated
and devastated the buildings of classical
Rome with ruthless hands, and that which
they had left undone had been accomplished
by hordes of those barbarians whose invasions
were, according to Machiavelli, often the
outcome of Papal invitation or connivance.

Most people are incapable of transferring to
paper the representation of a scene or object
before them, many cannot even draw a double
cube in perspective. To such persons the
facility with which Piranesi has drawn com-
positions and subjects, architectural and
natural, involving intricate treatment of per-
spective will appear to be what Mr. Glad-
stone would have described as " devilish.''
To some the fascinating effects of Piranesi's

skilful perspective are wont to give rise to
an uneasy suspicion that it is the result of a
trick, or sleight of hand, and these will regard
his work as a sceptical public usually regards
the minutely carved boxwood nuts and rosary
beads to be seen in the British Museum, with
admiration based upon wonder, and will not
receive from it an aesthetic sensation pro-
duced by appreciation of the Beautiful.

There is a picturesque if unconfirmed
legend that in order the better to obtain the
light and shade effects, some of the principal
characteristics of his etchings, Piranesi
studied by daylight the scene he proposed to
etch, half completed the plate, and then,
having saturated his memory with the
details necessary for the picture, finished the
plate at night, on the spot, by the light of a
full moon. In many cases he imparted a
studied disorder into the treatment of the
details of the subject for the purpose of
making the plate more interesting.

He dealt indiscriminately with subjects of

all kinds, reproducing ancient ruins as well
as standing buildings of more recent date.
He took minute and accurate measurements,
and many of the etchings contain a multitude
of measured details of ancient and mediaeval
architecture, of which, up to his day, there
had existed absolutely no record. In respect
of these details alone Piranesi is of the utmost
value to the architect of to-day, and parti-
cularly to the student of the early Renaissance.
It is difficult to estimate the whole
extent to which Piranesi depended on
others for artistic assistance. Not all the
plates were entirely his own unassisted work.
The figures in some of Piranesi's plates were
etched by Jean Barbault, more particularly
in those plates dealing with sepulchral
monuments, and as Barbault's name appears
on such plates in addition to that of Piranesi,
the amount of his assistance can be readily
ascertained. There are three plates in the
Antichita Romane engraved by Girolamo
Rossi — one of the three was drawn by

Antonio Buonamini. Piranesi took pupils,
employing them to help him, and among
those whom he taught was Piroli, a man of
considerable parts. Beyond Barbault's work
the assistance from pupils and others could
not have amounted to much. Piranesi's
style was of so individual a character that
were there any important work by another
hand it could be easily detected in the etch-
ings. Little or no such traces are to be
found in the etchings, and, as none of
Piranesi's pupils have produced work which
had caught Piranesi's style, it may be
assumed that if work other than Piranesi's
were present in the vital portions of a plate
it would be noticed without difficulty. His
pupil Piroli is well known as a friend of
the gentle-spirited John Flaxman, R. A. He
did part of the work for Flaxman's illustra-
tions of Homer, Dante, iEschylus, and Hesiod,
under Flaxman's personal supervision.

Towards the end of Piranesi's life his
children were of assistance ; but of his five

children only two were old enough, before
their father's death, to be of real help, namely,
Francesco, born in 1748, and Laura, born
in 1750. They both etched somewhat in
their father's style, and Francesco did fair
work, as may be best seen in the Paestum
etchings ; a diligent worker, he possessed to
some extent the power by which his father's
work is marked, but in imagination and taste
he was entirely lacking. After their father's
death they turned to print-selling more than
to producing, and Francesco and Laura,
joined by their brother Pietro, published at
Rome a quantity of engravings, and among
them several sets of Piroli's engravings.

The frontispiece of this volume is repro-
duced from a portrait of Piranesi which his
son Francesco engraved after the painting
of Guisseppe Cades. Francesco etched the
// Teatro d'Ercolano plates which were pre-
sumably made up from his father's drawings,
with the assistance of Palladio's Le Terme
del Romani, These etchings show the rela-

tive difference in the quality of the father's
ability as compared with that of the son.
But in any case, however good Francesco
may be considered, he suffers by comparison,
as is usually the case where a son has to
compete with his father's reputation.

Piroli the pupil drew the statue executed
by Angelini which sometimes appears
bound up with the works of Piranesi; the
plate was engraved by Francesco.^ The
statue itself was erected in the Priorato di
Malta which was at one time connected
with the Church of Santa Maria Aventina.
It is mentioned by Baron Stolberg in his
Travels, This church Piranesi restored
about the year 1765, and there he lies buried,
although immediately after death his body
was taken to S. Andrea della Fratte, where
it remained till it was decided that Santa
Maria Aventina should be its final resting-
place. There existed in Rome, and there is no
reason to suppose that it has been destroyed,

^ A reproduction of this plate is given in this volume.
3

but it cannot be traced, a bust of Piranesi
by Alessandro D'Este, the cost of which
Canova defrayed. It used to stand in the
Palace of the Conservatori. His contem-
porary Bianconi declares the bust to be a
bad likeness.

Santa Maria del Popolo also is one of
Piranesi's restorations. Restorers, justly or
unjustly, do not as a rule seem to be
favourites with mankind ; but in the case
of Santa Maria del Popolo the restorer has
left little or no opening for fault-finding.
How reverently and well he did his work
is proved by the fact that Santa Maria
del Popolo, notwithstanding the restorations,
is still considered by students to contain
original specimens of the most splendid
types of Renaissance Art. But Lanciani
condemns Piranesi's restoration of II
Priorato, calling it a mass of monstrosities,
inside and out. On the whole, however,
he did very little work as a practical archi-
tect. He accepted the patronage of the

Rezzonico Pope Clement xiii., also a Vene-
tian, who made him Cavaliere, and for
whom he carried out a few restorations,
and whose portrait he executed.

Piranesi's etchings found ready buyers,
but the largeness of the output rendered
the pecuniary return to the artist extremely
small. The supply being copious, it was
necessary to stimulate demand by charging
usually only the modest price of 2| paoli
(about 2s.) for each etching, however large.
Thus his very industry was a disadvantage
to him, for the important reason that
he had to earn a living. In the case of
some artists it would seem that idleness
possesses a certain pecuniary advantage.

His first dated publication, dedicated to
Bottari, dated 1748, and referred to on p. 17
as bearing his address, contained 30 plates.
The complete set was priced at the miser-
able pittance of 16 paoli, or about 13s. ^d.

It was with the utmost difficulty during
the early part of his life that he was able

to pay his way. A wife, curiously enough,
proved almost his salvation, bringing as she
did a small dowry.

Piranesi's courtship is in consonance with
his well-known character, and is all of a
piece with everything else he did. The
story is told that he was sitting in the
Forum at work drawing : his eye fell by
chance on a girl who happened to be
passing ; she was with her brother. Pira-
nesi, without leaving his seat, asked them
who they were. The boy replied that they
were the children of Prince Corsini's
gardener. To Piranesi the girl's black eyes
and her features were an instant proof that
she was descended from the ancient Romans,
and that she therefore fulfilled the ideal
he had fixed in his mind of what his wife
should be. Later the knowledge that
she possessed a dowry of 1 50 piastres (about
;^i2, 5s. od.) seems to have convinced him
that his first impressions were correct.
After hearing from the brother who they

2>7

were, he rose to his feet and asked the girl
if che were free to marry. She said she
was, and the matter was at once settled
so far as Piranesi's own intentions were
concerned. After this one interview with
the person whom he had thus hastily
decided to make his wife, he bluntly asked
her to marry him. Such impetuosity, while
it scared both the girl and her parents,
effectively prevented them from raising
objections or creating obstacles. Piranesi
was able to gain his point at once, and, as
usual, devoid of patience, he wasted no
further time, and the couple were married
five days later. The courtship had been
one of under a week.

One is reminded of Cellini.

Nor was it apparently at all unusual in
Italy during the eighteenth century to
arrange matrimonial and other matters in
this impetuous fashion. It is narrated by
M. Monnier of Carlo Goldoni, the
Moliere of Italy, who was born a dozen

years before Piranesi's birth, that he had
decided to marry, but on recalling an old
saying, came to the conclusion that the
delightful woman whom he loved might
possibly develop the ugliness of her elder
sister, and imagining his own disgust in
such an eventuality, gave her up. The
story goes that a few days later seeing by
chance a pretty young woman on a balcony,
Goldoni bowed to her with great tender-
ness, to which she made response with the
utmost fervour and equal modesty. Not a
moment was lost, a conversation ensued, the
girl told Goldoni that she had no mother
alive, but that her father might possibly be
found at a cafe hard by. Off went Goldoni to
the cafe, found the father, offered a theatre
ticket or two and himself as a son-in-law,
and settled matters without further ado.

His wife's dowry enabled Piranesi to
procure materials and to follow out his
intention of illustrating the Antiquities of
Rome, and notwithstanding the husband's

irritable disposition and jealous tempera-
ment the happiness of the union was
such as to show that possibly the matter
of the 150 piastres might not have been
an incentive to the courtship and marriage.
In the early days of their married life they
occupied, in the Palazzo Tomati, near the
Trinita de' Monti, the rooms which, in
after years, were inhabited by Thorwaldsen,
whence all his succeeding plates were
issued ; the first dated plate from that
address is of the year 1750.

The Opere Varie^ published by Bouchard
and dated from the Palazzo Tomati, near
the Trinita de' Monti, 1750, bear Piranesi's
adopted Arcadian title " Salcindio Tiseio,"
as well as his name and the words " Archi-
tetto Veneziano," for he never permitted it
to be forgotten that Venice was his native
city. This volume shows the influence of
Pannini's style : there are the broken altars,
fractured columns, shattered pediments, and
the slab bearing the incised name of the

etcher, the whole composition thrown
together just as Pannini would have painted
the picture. Sometimes bound up in this
volume is a series of imaginative designs
for palaces, temples, and national buildings,
perhaps intended as examples to be shown
to possible clients, private or public. This
volume also contains the Carceri^ to which
reference is made later on.

The Raccolta di Varie Vedute was published
in the next year, 1751, by Bouchard, and
comprised 93 plates. Of the 93 plates 47
are the work of Piranesi, and they do not
appear to have been included in any other
volume of Piranesi's etchings ; a few of
them, however, are to be found, reduced to
quarto size, in a volume by Venuti, issued
in 1766. The Raccolta di Varie Vedute is
a somewhat scarce volume, and the British
Museum copy, though otherwise perfect,
does not possess a title-page.

It was Piranesi's custom to shut himself
up in his own room and to work straight

PLATE Vin

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purt, tuta> tljr-(Ut Vcuro <Ul limpw ^(ej-^o : qu,U^ IvjjUpcni^a^ ad essa,, e per a/tretia^ ^caU iHji

ts^mdaiifi *vs(mi.,e temwut, uvuna^rande- aperttircL. dalU i^Jipende^ iHunie^ allaXilla. che kj-tZLSotto.

COMPOSITION FROM " OPERE VARIE."

on, without intermission, if an idea had
struck him, or if he had a subject in hand :
he had no patience. Engrossed in his
labours, he could not endure to lay down
his tools to take food or rest. He worked
on, regardless of time and forgetful of his
own or his children's bodily wants. There
is also a domestic picture which shows him
as a tyrannical father exercising the rights
of the Roman paterfamilias with the utmost
rigour. But these traits were not the only
reason for the fact that Piranesi's children
occasionally went hungry : his means in
the early years of their childhood were very
slender. The entire earnings of his whole
life were not large. Temanza possessed,
and quoted, a letter from Piranesi to his
sister dated eight months prior to the
etcher's death. After years of struggle,
years crowded with work, he wrote in
1778 that he had received during the forty
years since his arrival in Rome 50 or 60
thousand scudi (or in English money

an average of roughly ^250 to £2^0 a
year), and that he had been able out of
these earnings to live and to maintain his
wife and children, pay for materials to
equip his studio and to get together his
collection of vases, urns, and so on. If
;(^25o or £2^0 was the average annual
income of the forty years which included
those years during which he was reaping
the benefit of the reputation he had won,
the earnings in the early years must have
been meagre indeed. The collection of
vases, urns, and bas-reliefs was really a part
of his working tools, indispensable models,
the actual cost of which must have been
considerable ; so, after taking the cost into
account and calculating the outlay for
materials it will be found that the balance
remaining with which Piranesi met personal
and domestic disbursementsduring those forty
years, can be gauged within narrow limits.

The Papal authorities regarded his re-
searches and etchings with admiration and

approbation. Published with certain of his
etchings there is a kind of testimonial,
dated 1756, from D. Michael Angelo
Monsagrati, Counsellor of the Index, who
says that he has examined Piranesi's work
and has found nothing therein contrary to
religion and morality ; recognising the
excellence of the explanations and descrip-
tions, he judges it worthy to be proclaimed
of public utility, and on the ground that
there existed no work on Roman Antiquities
of equal clearness and brevity. The word
" brevity " does not appear to be in accord
with facts. The Pope occasionally bought
a set of the etchings for presentation to
distinguished visitors to Rome ; and Piranesi
narrates, in a letter to his sister, that he
was accustomed to receive from the Papal
Court for eighteen huge volumes of etchings
200 scudi, or roughly £^0, The cost in
time and material of taking the impressions
from the plates must have amounted, at the
very least, to half that sum.

Piranesi worked for all sorts of employers,
and for some in connection with subject-
matter which had little to do with external
architecture. Of these employers perhaps
Robert Adam was the most important. It
was Piranesi who executed for Adam certain
plates for the book published by Robert
Adam and his brother, dealing with archi-
tecture, furniture, and the interior decora-
tions of buildings. In this connection he is
perhaps the most vital link in a chain of
English furniture designers.

Mr. John Swarbrick, in his Prize Essay,
The Ltfe^ Work^ and Influence of Robert
Adam and his Brothers^ says " concerning
the plates No. IV, Vol. 2 of the Works "
(1779), Robert Adam has written : —

" Four of these plates are engraved by
Piranesi, and are the largest he has ever
attempted in regular Architecture. This
obligation from so ingenious an Artist we
owe to that friendship we contracted with
him during our long residence at Rome,

and which he has since taken every occasion
to testify in the most handsome manner."

From what has of late been learnt about
Piranesi's connection with Robert Adam
and the group of artists who surrounded
him, it may now be said, with some show
of truth, that the style of decoration, and
more particularly in the case of furniture,
associated with Adam's name may be better
described as " Piranesi '' than "Adam/'
Both, of course, were ardent admirers
of the Classic, and both drew their
ideas from that one common source ; but
Piranesi's etchings, the outcome of his
devotion to the Antique, were the vehicle
by which, at that time, fresh phrases of
design and detail were conveyed to Adam's
mind, and it may be asserted with some
degree of certainty that, but for the means
provided by Piranesi's genius, Adam's repu-
tation to-day would not be as high as it
actually is. Every one knows the passage
in Moliere's UAvare where Valere, the

lover of the Miser's daughter, tells Maitre
Jacques, the cook, that most people can
produce a good dinner where money is of
no account, whereas the cook who is truly
great is he who can produce a good dinner
with but slender means with which to go
to market. Adam had been furnished with
almost unlimited means from which to pro-
duce his effects, and he should be measured
by the standard set up by Valere. So far
as I can ascertain, Piranesi's connection
with Robert Adam came about as follows.
Adam spent three years (1754-57) in Italy
and Dalmatia, during which time he exam-
ined the remains of Roman architecture in
Italy generally and visited Spalato. Having
made the acquaintance of Winckelmann,
Adam became intimate with Clerisseau, a
great friend of Winckelmann, and, through
him, with Chambers, who was a pupil of
Clerisseau. Chambers, of whom more later,
was the architect of Somerset House, and in
a minor degree a designer of furniture. He

had travelled to England with Clerisseau in
1755. After Adam's return home from the
visit which he and Clerisseau paid together
to Spalato in 1757, they produced the work
styled the Ruins of the Palace of Diocletian
at Spalato^ the figures in that work being
drawn by Antonio Zucchi ; Bartolozzi also
helped, by engraving several of the plates.

Now Antonio Zucchi became eventually
the husband of Angelica KaufFmann, and
she had then lately etched a portrait of
Winckelmann, who was reaching the highest
pinnacle of fame in the estimation of every
one, from Goethe downwards, for his know-
ledge on all matters pertaining to Art.

Adam made the acquaintance of these
and other artists and engravers while abroad,
bringing some of them to England and
associating himself with them in his own
work. These folks formed the nucleus of
the circle from which radiated that type
of decoration associated with the names of
Adam, Sheraton, Pergolesi, Pastorini, Barto-

lozzi, Cipriani, and Ceracchi, and which
gradually pervaded English furniture and
engravings as well as bricks, mortar, stone,
marble, stucco, and metal. Most of these
names have an everyday familiarity about
them. Ceracchi's, however, is not well
known ; he did the relief-work for the
interior of Adam's houses. His was a weird
character. He ended his life under the
guillotine in Paris, dressed as a Roman
Emperor, having been convicted of com-
plicity in a plot to murder Bonaparte.
Antonio Zucchi, who became in 1781 the
husband of Angelica KaufFmann, after the
death of the fraudulent footman Brandt
who had been her first husband, designed
the frontispiece of the brothers Adam's
book, and Bartolozzi engraved it. Angelica
Kauffmann " of graceful fancy " executed
various kinds of decorative painting on
furniture, walls, and ceilings for the Adam
brothers ; her name is well known in that
particular connection. Zucchi was not

an artist of great merit, but he handled
architectural subjects well, and was one of
the party who went with Adam to Dalmatia.
In Lord Derby's collection at Knowsley
there are two large pictures painted by him
for the 1 2th Earl to commemorate the
marriage of Lord Stanley with Lady Betty
Hamilton, and they are in Piranesi's style.
He was elected an Associate of the Royal
Academy in 1770. With these artists
Piranesi was in continual and close touch,
and into this circle of talent drawn together
while in Italy by Robert Adam, for the
purpose of illustrating his Works in Archi-
tecture^ Adam brought his friend Piranesi.
Adam's Works appeared in 1778 ; Pira-
nesi since 1762, at least, had been on
terms of intimate friendship with Robert
Adam, and it is not all improbable that
Adam had interested himself in the election
in 1757 of Piranesi to the Society of Anti-
quaries in London.

It will be noticed that at even so late a

date as 1757 it was to artists of foreign birth
that Adam had to turn for the assistance
he required. Most of these artists were
Roman Catholics and had been trained upon
work designed for the adornment of build-
ings connected with their faith. British
Art had suffered severely through the
dispersal of the monasteries and from the
attacks on the Roman Catholic religion in
England. From the date of the dissolution
of the religious houses until nearly the third
quarter of the eighteenth century Nature was
either niggard in bestowing or was hindered
in developing the talent of British-born
painters and sculptors. Either or both of
these views may be correct, but in any case
the strife raging round religion in England
during the period indicated effectually
prevented native-born talent from perfecting
itself in the arts which have always found
kindly patronage among members of a
Church whose leaders have systematically
addressed themselves to the encouragement

of music, painting, and sculpture, owing,
probably, to the fact that the papacy re-
garded Science as incompatible with its
pretensions and hostile to its dogmas.

Whether from natural causes or owing to
political or other reasons, for several genera-
tions British genius flowed into the channels
of Science rather than into those of Art.
Macaulay has pointed out how native
talent, diverted from painting and sculpture,
stimulated by the example of Bacon, re-
appeared in the illustrious men whose names
are associated with the foundation and early
years of the Royal Society. By the begin-
ning of the eighteenth century researches
into the realms of Nature, led by Newton,
Halley, Petty, Boyle, Sloane, Wallis, and
others, had placed England in a position in
regard to scientific matters second to none
among the nations of the world. But what
of native artists ? From the time of the
Augsburg Holbein no British name of note
can be recalled to adorn the roll of painters

and sculptors till Hogarth redeemed British
painting from the reproach that it was
under foreign domination, and till Banks,
NoUekens, and Flaxman proved that English-
men knew the way in which to handle a
chisel. If Wren be put forward and
claimed as an artist it must of course be
admitted that he was a Titan, but Archi-
tecture is not so much an Art as a Science
and it should not be classed with painting
and sculpture ; for however entrancing may
be the beauties of architectural design or
however impressive the spectacle of archi-
tectural mass, the efforts of the architect are
both useless and meaningless unless they
have been rendered feasible by the assistance
of the engineer and useful by the calcula-
tions of the mathematician. Wren must
therefore be placed for the moment out-
side the argument, for he was both engineer
and mathematician as well as artist. Let
us see who then were the artists and
sculptors whose names stand out during

those years in which the men connected with
the Royal Society were rendering London
the pivot of the scientific world. From
Holbein's day till 1760, the year in which
the Society of Arts held its first Exhibition,
few British names can be discovered. There
is Cooper, but Cornelius Jonson was really
Janssen Van Ceulen. Then Dutch Van-
dyck ; Lely too was a Dutchman (from
Soest near Utrecht, though some authorities
persist in describing him as a Westphalian) ;
Kneller was a German. Then there were
the two Dutch Vanderveldes. The vulgar
Verrio (see p. 106) who painted frescoes
framed into spurious architectural com-
positions was from Lecce, near Otranto,
where Baroc architecture may be seen at
its best. His friend Laguerre, with his
" sprawling saints " as Pope called them, was
from Paris, and had Louis xiv. as his god-
father. How seldom it is recollected that
Grinling Gibbons the carver and sculptor
was not a native of Deptford but was born

in Holland, and that Cibber who executed
the Phoenix over the south door of St.
Paul's Cathedral and the large bas-relief
on the pedestal of Wren's Monument of
London, and who was the father of
Colley Cibber, was born in Holstein, and
that during the days when the illustrious
Newton was at the Mint it was necessary
to employ French skill in order to produce
suitable designs for the coins of this realm.
And it was not that the successes of painters
and sculptors were badly recompensed in
England, or that those who professed these
arts were regarded as being placed low in
the social scale. The contrary was the
case : great social consideration was a
portion of their reward, their attainments
were honoured and their skill respected ; the
pay of the painter was of so lavish a kind
that foreign artists, many of whom were
failures in the country of their birth, lost
no time in invading this country, attracted
by the scale by which labours such as theirs

were rewarded. The fact is there was no
nursery in Britain for native talent, and Adam
had no British material to which to turn.

Four of the most attractive and charac-
teristic plates in Adam's book were engraved
by Piranesi. They illustrate Sion House,
and are referred to by Adam as being
the largest Piranesi had ever attempted in
regular architecture. With this book the
public nowadays is familiar, and none of
the plates will be found, on comparison, to
excel those of Piranesi in the expression of
the special aesthetic characteristic of which
the epithet " Adam " is usually predicated.
Adam's work, published in conjunction
with his staff who produced the illustra-
tions, rendered invaluable services to the
masters of the styles of English furniture,
after the middle of the eighteenth century, to
the cabinet-maker andarchitectof that period.

Piranesi's etchings of the Classic and of the
Renaissance, thrust forward by an aggressive
personality, spread broadcast the elements

which illustrated the doctrines other men
were preaching. Thus the less aesthetic
minds were helped into taking part in a
movement towards appreciation of the
Classic form which has become absorbed
into everything put forward by the masters
who teach us how to adorn our daily
existence. His etchings first opened the
eyes of many to the beauty of fine archi-
tecture and did work which learned essays
failed to accomplish.

Piranesi's unexpected influence peeps
out from all sorts of famous work. In
Mr. Hind's History of Engraving and
Etching it is stated (pp. 240-42) that in
the hands of John Crome (old Crome)
etching was " sounder in principle than
almost anything that had been produced
in Europe for almost a century." John
Crome and his fellow-townsman, John Sell
Cotman, the other great artist of the
Norwich School, were simultaneously at
work at Norwich on soft and hard ground

PLATE IX.

^^cJuts.

alcro Candclairv aniico
rcjicst.

CANDELABRUM FROM *' VASI CANDELAHRI, ETC.

etching, and Cotman produced his etchings
of architectural antiquities under the in-
fluence of "his professed model Piranesi/'
This fact of Piranesi being used by the
Norwich School shows how versatile were
the Norwich men in their power to
produce the almost poetical softness of their
landscapes alongside of formal draughts-
manship modelled on Piranesi.

Architecture and architectural ornament
finely drawn by this one man enabled
innumerable other men to design fine
architecture and fine furniture. To those
other men Piranesi's work was a fitting
text-book, rich in formulae, easy both of
access and comprehension. His ideas,
interpretations, and details, again, were as
useful to the architect and draughtsman as
are the services of the refiner to the worker
in metal. The rough ingot, by Piranesi's
help and influence and by his fortunate
association with Adam and Adam's circle,
became, in the hands of the craftsman or

architect, the beautiful work of art as we
know it, and an idiom of design. More-
over, in Piranesi's day the architect was to
this extent so important a personage that
his labours did not end when he had
finished building the house and decorating
it. To guide the architect was to direct,
or at least to lend colour to, a great deal
of domestic life ; the house, the garden, the
cradle, the desk, the church, the wedding
dress, the couch, the tombstone, were all
included in the work for which the
architect's imagination was responsible. In
times which were ripe for a revised appre-
ciation of the Classic the influence of
Piranesi may have been unsuspected, but
designs bearing the unmistakable impress
of his mind and hand passed one by one
into circulation as the current coin of every-
day use in decoration.

The antiquarian enthusiasm and investi-
gation of Piranesi and the opportunity
afforded him of giving the result of them

PLATE X.

<Jfn ^na/iilCcrra. pnep'X) il Sianor£Ua/tori Gaualiere i^ncrieJ^

TRIPOD AND VASE FROM " VASI CANDELABRI, ETC."

to the English world through the channel
of Adam's work, assisted Adam and his
friends to create and develop the style which
became popular, not only in architecture
but in furniture.

Much furniture now and always described
as being of the style of the well-known
designers of the eighteenth and early nine-
teenth century derives its special feeling
and characteristic ornamentation from
Piranesi's influence, and there are many
examples of splendid English furniture,
made of mahogany, which are called
" Chippendale," " Lock," " Chambers,"
" Adam," or by some other contempo-
raneous name, constructed of material and
with workmanship of the most honest
and expensive kind, which might well be
described as " Piranesi " furniture. Such are
the pieces which have hitherto successfully
baffled the collector who has attempted
to assign to them a definite period, origin,
or style. In design they usually resemble

Adam too closely to be called " Chippen-
dale," and are too much like " Chippendale''
to be called " Adam " ; as a rule they
are evidently not so old as to be what
is known as an original "Adam'' or
"Chippendale" piece "of the period";
nor do they look as if they had been
made from characteristic Chippendale or
Adam designs even though at a date later
than that with which those two designers
are identified. That is an important point.
In the Soane Museum, among the many
original drawings by Robert Adam, are
the designs of some chairs and sofas made
by him for Sir Laurence Dundas which are
quite unlike in feeling and decorative detail
anything usually called " Adam " furniture.
They exhibit every characteristic one would
expect Piranesi to have inspired, and are im-
pregnated with the perfume he had distilled
from the Antique. Now the designs for
these chairs and sofas were made by Adam
just before 1764, at a time when Adam

and Piranesi were in close touch with
each other. To my mind the extent to
which Adam was influenced and even
dominated by Piranesi is at once patent
in these designs for Sir Laurence Dundas.
Since 1764 many celebrated cabinet-makers
have produced fine furniture, the style and
period of which have baffled the collector.
There is no great difficulty about the
explanation. These cabinet-makers have
merely adopted Adam's method : they
have fixed upon the form or shape required
and then, going a step further, have taken
Piranesi's etchings and blended his idioms
into their designs ; consequently, when
judgment finds difficulty in placing a name
upon an uncommonly well-made piece of
furniture, fine in design and treatment, the
words " inspired by Piranesi " are often the
solution, where the description " Adam "
or " Chippendale '' would be incorrect.

This kind of furniture is somewhat more
sober than Chippendale. In Chippendale

designs the carving had gradually become
very exuberant, and, whether in the Gothic,
Chinese, Classic or Rococo, it was inclined
to show a lack of restraint and to convey
the impression of noisiness. Furniture
with the Piranesi feeling avoids that fault ;
it is likewise free from the coldness and
bloodlessness that often render Adam
insipid. In particular the carvings are
more interesting and the mouldings softer
to the eye and hand, indeed especially so to
the touch.

The publication of Piranesi's Roman
etchings and the admiration they inspired
tempered the tendency prevailing in
Chippendale's day, not only in archi-
tectural composition in Europe generally,
but especially among the English furniture
makers, to slip away towards the Rococo.
The designer of enrichment, after seeing
Piranesi's etchings, felt irresistibly com-
pelled by the veneration for the Antique
imparted by Piranesi, simplex munditns^ to

moderate his excesses in " Periwig and
Pigtail." ^ The period which saw the
decline and fall of the Rococo in art,
literature, and morals owed a greater debt
to Piranesi's influence upon architecture
and the kindred arts than it was ever aware
of. Indeed, it may be advanced with some
certainty that the lines along which the
composition and designs of Piranesi
furniture move show plainly enough that
as much toll was taken from Piranesi's
etchings of the Antique as from the
Antique itself.

The points to be noticed in what may be
called a piece of " Piranesi " furniture are as
follows. There is a noble simplicity of
outline, which is at the same time treated

^ The Church of St. Paul and St. Louis at Paris is a
fair example of Rococo. In Rococo it was considered
necessary to keep as closely as possible to the columnar
orders, but gradually an opposite tendency had crept in
and meaningless forms were used. Although the Antique
was resorted to, it was not in such a way as to accord
with the original intention, and the resulting effect was
called " Periwig and Pigtail."

in such a way as to be entirely English in
character. All the carved mouldings are
those usually found on Classic stone-work;
somewhere in the piece there is a suggestion
of Renaissance feeling, or inspiration, lending
lightness, colour, and saliency to the whole,
either in a pediment, frieze, panel edge,
plinth, foot, or in any spot where a piece
made from Chippendale's designs would
be found heavy, dull, and uninteresting.
Whenever it is thus present, the touch of
Renaissance is the certain indication of
Piranesi influence.

Apparently there were not many makers
of these " Piranesi " pieces, for nearly all of
them have similar marked peculiarities and
are alike in details. The Piranesi influence
is unmistakable, pet cadences in form and
treatment sign each piece all over. The
mahogany employed is uncommonly beauti-
ful in colour and markings ; its colour, not
so black as that of the wood used by makers
of Chippendale designs, is perhaps best de-

PLATE XI.

DETAILS FROM " VaSI CANDELABRI, ETC.

and built a reputation on it. Yet, if the
student will take Adam's book, published
in 1778, and compare it, for example, with
Piranesi's volume of designs published in
1769, and if, further, he will examine the
drawings of the Dundas chairs and sofas
made by Adam in 1764 and now in the
Soane Museum, he will be able to judge for
himself who was the master and who the
disciple, and he will wonder why Piranesi's
name is not now used where that of Adam
is usually mentioned.

Mr. Percy Macquoid, in his History of
English Furniture^ " The Age of Satin wood,"
p. 47, says : " In comparing the de-
signs of Piranesi and Adam it is at once
apparent how the former originated and the
latter improved and adapted this Italian
style to English requirements. There are
pages of Piranesi's drawings that Adam
reproduced fearlessly as his own, enlarging
and simplifying the details of the originals."
This last sentence goes perhaps a little too far.

As early even as 1762 the terms of friend-
ship existing between the two men must
have been of a cordial character, for they
were of a kind sufficient to warrant so signal
a token of regard as a dedication by Piranesi
to one whom he describes in the most
prominent position in the plates as " the
celebrated British architect, Robert Adam."
Adam's name is set out in bold lettering,
not once but several times, in the one set of
plates forming the Campus Martins Anttquce
Urbis, Moreover, in one of these plates,
and in a position of honour, is the repre-
sentation of a medal bearing the names and
profiles of Piranesi and Adam side by side.

The Campus Martius series was etched
to please himself, and was largely the out-
come of Piranesi's fertile imagination. He
studied the Classics, and following the indi-
cations of writers of the period, wrote an
essay on the history of the Campus Martius,
described its buildings, drew a plan of the
site, and covered a map with exact details

.70

of imagined monuments, tombs, baths,
temples, and porches, without having found
a single trace that anything of the kind had
ever existed.

On the Campus Martins title-page
Piranesi describes himself, and is evidently-
very proud of the distinction, as a Fellow of
the Royal \sic\ Society of Antiquaries of
London, of which Society he was elected an
Honorary Fellow on the 7th of April 1757.
Mr. W. H. St. John Hope, the late Assistant
Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, has
been kind enough to furnish me with
the following extract from Minute Book
Vin. 8 :—

" Thursday^ 2.\th February 1757.

" Testimonials were severally presented
recommending . . . and also II Signor
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, a Venetian,
resident at Rome, a most ingenious Archi-
tect, and Author of the Antiquities in Rome and
the Neighbourhood^ v Vols folio, and desirous
of being admitted an Honorary Member of

this Society. Signed severally by R. Ossory,
T. Theobald, P. Collinson, A. Cooper,
A. Pond, H. Barker, C. Rogers, W. Norris/'

Notwithstanding its many faults, the
volume of Diverse Maniere referred to above,
so useful to furniture makers and furniture
painters, is the long neglected parent of a
delightful progeny, which has been fathered
upon Adam, if not even adopted by him, as
his own offspring, earning praise for the
illegitimate relative to which the latter is not
wholly entitled. This volume too has also
been of value in influencing furniture design,
but in another direction, and examination of
its plates will help to confirm an observation
of Mr. R. S. Clouston, who has made most
valuable investigations into the history of
English furniture. In writing of Adam he
says that in Chippendale's third edition of
The Director the ram's head decoration
occurs, that this form of decoration is a
great favourite of Adam's and that it was

Chippendale's habit to absorb the ideas of
others into his designs, after having " ele-
vated and refined '' them. Now Adam re-
turned from Italy about the year 1757, and it
was from Adam, who worked in conjunction
with Chippendale, that the fundamental idea
of the ram's head was acquired by Chippen-
dale for the third edition of Chippendale's
Director^ which appeared in 1762. Adam
had drawn his ram's head designs under the
influence of Piranesi. Further, it must
always be borne in mind that both Robert
Adam and his brother James were employed
to design furniture which Chippendale made,
and which passes by the name of the latter ;
many pieces of furniture now called Chippen-
dale owe their design undoubtedly to the
drawing-board of one or other of the
brothers Adam. Later on they applied
themselves to designing on their own account
the furniture which is now known by their
name. This fact is usually overlooked, nor
is it generally known that the renowned

PLATE XII.

VASES AND TRIPOD FROM " VAST CANDKt.ABRI, ETC.

furniture belonging to Lord Harewood and
to Lord St. Oswald respectively, was made
by Chippendale, not from his own designs,
but from designs supplied by the brothers
Adam. As to Nostell Priory, Lord St.
Oswald actually arranged in 1767 for Adam
and Chippendale to collaborate for the
purpose of furnishing and decorating that
mansion.

As more light is thrown by research on
the origin of the designs of English furniture,
it becomes increasingly certain that, on
the question even of furniture-design the
inevitable attack, which sooner or later
assails every form of extended dominion in
mundane affairs, is not now far off. When
the onslaught is made it will be found
necessary, in order to defend the citadel of
Chippendale and Adam, to surrender many
of their claims and to withdraw within such
accurately marked frontiers as can be effec-
tually maintained. Much of the outlying
ground now occupied by Chippendale and

Adam isPiranesi'sproperty — howhe acquired
some of it, and how he was evicted without
protest, will baffle the most subtle analyst.
The materials from which his title-deeds are
drawn resemble the Corinthium y^s which
was composed at the burning of Corinth,
of an amalgamation of all the other metals.
The elements of Piranesi's materials are to
be found, however, scattered over most of
his etchings.

Piranesi's first publication of etchings,
though undated, appeared in 1741, thirteen
years before Adam's arrival in Italy.
Bouchard of Rome had published, in 1750,
the Opere Varie and Carceri^ followed in the
next year by the series of Piranesi's works
in a great folio entitled Le Magnificence
di Roma le pih remarcabili. The four
volumes of Antichita Ro?nane appeared in
1756, and it is here necessary to correct a
statement made by some authorities that these
four volumes embodied all the etchings of
the kind that had thus far been produced by

Piranesi's needle, and that they included the
dated series of 1748 dedicated to Bottari.
A careful search has been made and no
justification can be found for this statement.
None of the 47 views which Piranesi etched
for the collection of 93 plates published
in 1 75 1 by Bouchard and called the
Raccolta di Varie Vedute appear in the Anti-
chlth^ nor do any of the Bottari series, al-
though in the latter case it would be not
improbable that a copy could be found with
the Antichith and Bottari series bound to-
gether as though they really belonged to
one series of etchings.

Remembering that the brothers Adam
designed for Chippendale, and proceeding
along Mr. Clouston's line of thought, it
becomes evident that Chippendale too has
to thank Piranesi for a little of his fame,
and a day may come yet when we perhaps
shall be expected to speak of a piece of
" Piranesi " where we now speak of a piece
of " Chippendale '' furniture.

The circumstances of the publication of
the Antichita Romane are interesting in view
of the light they throw on Piranesi's char-
acter. The four volumes Antichita Romane
vary considerably as to title-page in different
copies. The original intention of the etcher
was to dedicate the work to James Caulfield,
ist Earl of Charlemont, who was staying
in Rome in 175 1 on his way home from
Greece and Egypt.

Charlemont was the Irish statesman and
friend of Grattan, and it was under his
auspices and as Member for Charlemont that
Grattan entered Parliament. He had been
the benefactor of several young artists in
Rome, among whom was Parker and possibly
Chambers. Lord Charlemont had interested
himself in the Fine Arts and was a friend
of Reynolds and Johnson. He founded a
school for English artists at Rome, which
was ultimately closed after a brief career,
owing to the misconduct of some of its
students. As a member of the Dilettanti

Society he had been Chairman of a Com-
mittee which that Society had appointed
to superintend researches into the Classical
Antiquities of Asia Minor.

The Dilettanti Society had been founded in
1733 by " some gentlemen who had travelled
in Italy and who were desirous of encour-
aging at home a taste for those objects which
had contributed so much to their entertain-
ment abroad." Pope's friend, Joseph Spence,
a Fellow of New College and the author of
Polymetis^ was one of the few commoners
who were its earliest members. The Society
published a series of splendid works on archae-
ological subjects. James Stuart (" Athen-
ian " Stuart) and Nicholas Revett produced
for the Society The Antiquities of Athens Meas-
ured and Delineated^ the work which led to
the idea of St. James's Square, London, being
built according to Greek architecture, and
one of their friends and supporters, Robert
Wood, a traveller and an Under Secretary of
State, published An Essay on the Original

Genius and Writings of Homer with a Com-
parative View of the Ancient and Present
State of the Troade, The works of these
three men caused Goethe to say that " with
the exception of England, not one of the
European nations of the present day possessed
the enthusiasm for the remains of classical
antiquity which spares neither cost nor pains
in the endeavour to restore them to their
perfect splendour."

This leaning towards all things Classic
which pushed aside English architecture in
the middle of the reign of King George iii.
was perhaps originated by Stuart and Revett,
and the house in St. James's Square, London,
built by Stuart, was possibly the first actual
result of the efforts to promote a Classic
revival.

Parker was the Director of Lord Charle-
mont's Academy of English Professors of
the Liberal Arts at Rome, as it was called,
and he acted as agent to Lord Charlemont.
His career at the Academy was unfortunate ;

his conduct there created such dissensions
that he was ultimately one of the causes of
the Academy being suppressed.

Piranesi and Parker quarrelled. Piranesi
resented the treatment he was receiving
at the hands of Parker, acting as Lord
Charlemont's representative, and although
during a period of years the etcher had
been shaping his plans with the object of
dedicating his work to Lord Charlemont,
the result of his quarrel with Parker was,
that Piranesi altered the title-page, strik-
ing out Lord Charlemont's name, and
where other plates bore Lord Charlemont's
name Adam's name was substituted. He
issued in 1757, but only to his own friends,
Lettere di Giustijic axiom scritte a milord
Charlemont^ with eight engravings, explain-
ing the reason for his change of plan.
Etched in quarto were the exact copies of
the four original frontispieces which were to
have immortalised Lord Charlemont as Pira-
nesi's patron, with views of the inscriptions

re-etched as they now stand. The effect of
this manipulation is to make it appear as if
the first inscriptions had been cut out of the
stones depicted, and new ones inserted on
small pieces. There are also head and tail
pieces alluding to the matters and persons
involved in the dispute. These Letters
were afterwards suppressed, as they gave
offence to persons other than those against
whom they were directed.

The story as told by Piranesi in these
Letters is, that wishing to dedicate to Lord
Charlemont a collection of etchings on the
sepulchral monuments of Rome, he left with
Parker, for Lord Charlemont's inspection,
certain of the plates. Parker returned them
to him, some months after Lord Charlemont's
departure from Rome, with a Latin inscrip-
tion in honour of Lord Charlemont, to be
engraved on the title-page. Piranesi worked
at his plates till 1755, and in that year wrote
to Lord Charlemont to tell him that the
results of his labours would fill four volumes

instead of one volume as had been originally
intended, whereupon Lord Charlemont sent
the etcher, through Parker, a corrected
dedication more applicable to the enlarged
scope of the work. When the work ap-
peared some time later, Parker, in his capacity
of agent for Lord Charlemont, offered to
purchase etchings to the value of loo scudi
(^20) and to give the etcher 100 scudi more
as a present. These sums Piranesi refused as
being an inadequate return for the four title-
pages he had specially etched. In the dis-
cussion it appears that it was Piranesi's habit
to have a number of impressions taken from
each plate, and that the fair remuneration
for the work of etching each title-page was
300 scudi (>C6o), further that he usually
received 1000 scudi (^200) for a total of
4000 impressions of various plates sold at 2^
paoli each ; from which it may be gathered
that the printer and publisher received i^
paoli (is.) to cover cost of printing, paper,
expenses of sale and profit for each im-

pression, leaving is. for Piranesi for each
impression sold.

Parker maintained that Piranesi had only-
received Lord Charlemont's permission for a
dedication of one volume and that he had
not authorised the dedication of four volumes.
Piranesi retorted that Lord Charlemont,
through Parker, had given consent by
changing the inscription from " monumenta
sepulchralia " for the one volume into
"monumenta insignioria antiqua " for the
four volumes. A friend of Parker, called
by Piranesi " Sig. A. G.," desirous of arriving
at a compromise, went to see Piranesi. He
rendered the position very entertaining to
the etcher by showing him a letter, pur-
porting to come from Lord Charlemont,
with a proposal that 50 zecchini should
be paid for the Anttchtth, If that sum
did not satisfy Piranesi, Sig. A. G. mildly
notified the etcher that Lord Charlemont
would close an unpleasing squabble by
having Piranesi assassinated. Piranesi

PLATE XIII.

PONTR MOLl.E OVER THE IIBKK.

generously declined to believe Lord
Charlemont was privy to the offer or
threat, and himself closed the discussion
by erasing the inscriptions from the four
title-pages. He was deeply wounded by
the disappointment he had experienced at
the hands of Lord Charlemont, but he
would not accept monetary offers made
by another patron for the honour of
having his name placed on the title-page,
and Piranesi thenceforward regarded the
public and posterity as the patrons of his
labours. The frontispiece of the first
volume of the Antichita is a splendid
example of architectural composition : in
the foreground, among a mass of shattered
trophies, is a slab bearing the words,
" Urbis iEternae Vestigia Ruderibus Tem-
porumque Injuriis Vindicata iEneis Tabulis
Incisa J. B. Piranesius Venetus Roma
Degeus iEvo Suo Posteris Et Utilitate
Publica. C.V.D." And just as in earlier
times it was for certain reasons customary

to efface from a monument the name of
an Emperor by knocking away the bronze
letters of the inscription bearing his name,
leaving the useless nails still projecting,
so Piranesi has made it abundantly clear
that he has in a similar manner mutilated
the original dedicatory inscription, and
has etched the plate to appear as if a
fresh block of stone had been let in to
carry the altered inscription. Lying among
the shields that form a trophy is one of
unusual shape, on which an almost ex-
punged coat of arms can be traced. The
crest is Charlemont's.

On the whole, if the reasons set forth
by Piranesi in these letters were the
actual cause of the rupture, his complaint
is deserving of sympathy. Piranesi was
a very poor man, and it is difficult to
suppose that Lord Charlemont himself
would have acted towards Piranesi in the
manner adopted by his agent, Parker. At
the outset Lord Charlemont may have

wished to assist Piranesi, and his enthusiasm
may have cooled ; it may be assumed that
he would not have dreamed, however, of
wounding the etcher's self-respect. But
Parker, acting for him in his absence,
played true to the reputation he had ac-
quired as Director of the Academy of
English Professors. He so infuriated
Piranesi by the treatment received at his
hands, that Piranesi in his letters not only
reproached Lord Charlemont most bitterly,
but in one or two passages permitted
himself to adopt a tone scarcely short of
impudent.

Possibly Lord Charlemont had originally,
on the impulse of a moment, made promises
to Piranesi which he later, on cooling
down, decided to interpret in a manner
rather less liberal than that which he had
led Piranesi to expect. Parker could
scarcely have acted entirely without the
instructions of his employer. Parker had
probably been desired to waive aside

Piranesi's requests gently and diplomati-
cally, and so gradually bring home to
Piranesi that no great hopes for real
assistance should be based on Lord
Charlemont's promised patronage. Money
was the crux. Parker used a bludgeon, and,
with a man of Piranesi's fiery character,
the result was a violent explosion.

Charlemont, as may be gathered from
the epitaph composed by himself and
found among his papers, liked to pose
as a benefactor. His habit of courting
popularity extended beyond his acts as
a politician and statesman. Traveller
and antiquarian, he affected Art and
Literature, and now, till the question of
expense arose, would like to be patron
of the etcher. His relations with Piranesi
add no lustre to his character ; it looks as
if he desired to receive the distinction of
a dedication at the hands of an artist
whom he had promised to encourage, but
on discovering that the honour involved

duties and expense he either broke a
promise or shuffled unworthily.

What one of his friends thought of
Lord Charlemont may be judged by the
following : — Boswell, in 1778, in expressing
the opinion that travel improves conversa-
tion, puts forward Lord Charlemont as an
instance in point. Whereupon Johnson
makes short work of Lord Charlemont : —
" I never but once heard him talk of what
he had seen, and that was of a large serpent
on one of the Pyramids of Egypt."

But Johnson's estimate of Lord Charle-
mont may have been not altogether un-
biased. Charlemont had once tried to
tease Johnson by asking him in the presence
of Burke and Reynolds whether a news-
paper report, that he was taking dancing
lessons from Vestris, was true. Johnson
not only resented joking comments on his
personal appearance or reflections on his
dignity, but was exceedingly sensitive on
the subject of looks generally ; he disliked

the historian Gibbon, who was a vain man
notwithstanding a ridiculous nose and a
button mouth, because he was " such an
amazingly ugly person."

Hardy says that Lord Charlemont and
Piranesi eventually became reconciled.

During the time that Piranesi was at
work on the Antichita Romane^ Chambers,
it may be remembered, was also at Rome
lodging with Clerisseau, under whom he
studied at Paris, and with whom he had
come to England in 1755.

Clerisseau, the friend of Robert Adam,
worked also with Zucchi, who was em-
ployed on the illustrations of Adam's book.

Now Chambers who studied under
Clerisseau was eventually Sir William
Chambers, R.A., who besides being the
architect of Somerset House, and the
architect employed by Lord Charlemont
to build Charlemont House, Dublin, was
a designer of furniture and of decoration
generally. Piranesi and Chambers were

personally well known to one another in
Rome, moving as they did in the same
circle from 1747 to 1755. Chambers him-
self narrates that he knew Piranesi, and
that he was present when a discussion
took place between Piranesi and some
pensioners of the French Academy, on the
subject of Piranesi's skill as an architect.
The impression made by Piranesi and his
etchings on Chambers may be seen in all
Chambers's work.

Piranesi early in life moved in what
were artistically and perhaps intellectually
the most desirable circles of Rome. He
was regarded as one of the sights of the
city, and was brought into contact with
many of the accomplished visitors who
flocked to Rome from all parts. His work
was probably known to every lover of the
Fine Arts who came to Italy.

The English and the Scotch were his
principal admirers and patrons. Rome was
particularly attractive to them in Piranesi's

time ; the Pretender was living there, and
was being continually visited by Scottish
gentlemen who had gone out in the '45.
Among the latter was Strange, the engraver,
who had fled for his life and had lived to
be knighted. It was Graeme, a general
in the service of Venice, who enabled his
fellow-countryman Robert Adam to obtain,
from the Governor of Dalmatia, permission
to work at Spalato, for the purpose of
making the drawings of the Palace of
Diocletian. Several of his own country-
men recognised Piranesi's merits, and
supported his claims for encouragement.
Beyond that, they did not go. Certainly
no opportunity was ever given to Piranesi,
even by them, of putting into practice
any of the ideas with which his brain was
crowded. He was employed to help
architects and designers, his etchings were
always admired and welcomed, but he
was never employed to design and super-
intend the erection of a building by which

he might possibly have been known for
all time. Although he did not pose as a
practical architect, in collaboration with a
person properly versed in the science of
building, his taste and originality would
have enabled him to clothe correct con-
struction with great beauty.

The encouragement he received from
English and Scottish friends may be seen
in the various plates of the two volumes
Vasi^ Gandelabri^ Cippi ; they teem with
dedications to British names. It is not
necessary to mention many, but it may
be interesting to quote a few : — George
Grenville, William Beckford, Aubrey Beau-
clerk, Henry Hope, Penn Assheton Curzon,
Conte di Lincoln (afterwards second Duke
of Newcastle-under-Lyme), Lord Carmar-
then, Lord Palmerston, Chas. Townley,
T. M. Slade, Milord Conte D'Exeter a
Burghley, Gavin Hamilton, and Thomas
Jenkins. These two last-named are referred
to later on.

One unexpected name appears on some
of the etchings, and how it comes there
it is difficult to understand — that of Charles
Morris. Morris was a " Steak/' the punch-
maker and bard of the " Beefsteak " Society.
Morris with classic urns is hard to realise,
— he seems sadly out of place as a patron
of refined Art. Macaulay says he was a
buffoon, and mentions Morris and Wolcot
(Peter Pindar) as having made Pitt the
victim of " a merriment which was of no
very delicate kind.'*

Although Piranesi called himself a son
of Rome, and boasted that the fascination of
Rome had alone inspired him to work,
he never forgot his native city, and the
words " Architetto Veneziano " reappear on
his title-pages from time to time. He
complained of the inertness of the eighteenth-
century Italians in appreciation of the
Beautiful, and praising the English nation
for the protection she grants to all the
Arts, declared that, had it been in his power

to choose his birthplace, he would have
preferred London,

Will he be justified eventually ? For
although the British Empire is now more
populous and richer than ever was the
Roman Empire, will the etcher of archi-
tecture from New Zealand, as he picks his
steps through the prophesied tangle of dock-
leaves and nettles seventeen centuries hence,
find, among the ruins of our London, archi-
tectural remains capable of inspiring and
fascinating the Piranesi of 3450 a.d. as
the remains of Rome fascinated the Piranesi
of 1750 ? The nineteenth century has
been a period of increasing wealth and of
prosperity scarcely rufHed even by wars
on distant frontiers, yet what has a century
of such peace and richness contributed to
national architecture in Great Britain ? To
the English cathedrals built in the days
of our Norman and Angevin kings, to the
Tudor and Jacobean glories of the two
Universities, to St. Paul's Cathedral and the

English country houses of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, we have merely
added Barry's Palace of Westminster, with its
sight-value undeveloped owing to its design
being not only crippled but also dull and
devoid of the candour proper to the Gothic ;
a Cathedral hard by, the Law Courts, the
Government Offices between Charing Cross
and Westminster, and — the Albert Memorial.
Liverpool will be able to add her Cathedral
and her St. George's Hall, the latter being
perhaps as fine an example of the Classic style
of architecture produced in modern times as
there is to be found anywhere in Europe.
And this is notwithstanding our protesta-
tions and affectations of what it has pleased
some of us to talk of as our " culture and
admiration of the Fine Arts."

The fiery and impetuous character of
Piranesi's temperament is seen by the way
in which he set himself to commit to an
etched plate every item of archaeological
interest that met his eye. With the

imagination of genius, he grasped the
intentions of the original designer of an
ancient or mediasval ruin, supplied what
had been lost, and reproduced the finished
whole. Still, crude genius was not the
quality which enabled Piranesi to achieve
what he did. The success of his needle
was not the result of any flash of genius
such as at times makes the painter or the
sculptor. Piranesi's position was reached
by honest, persistent, laborious toil, and a
love of his work. He tasted the serene
beauties of Art and architecture, and he
was conscious of the slightest shading in
their flavour. Noble form inspired him
as does melody the musician, and with his
needle he played the theme and its
variations. To him architecture was just
what Goethe called it, petrified music,
" Baukunst, eine erstarrte Musik."

Piranesi's energy was inexhaustible. He
is responsible for about 1300 plates: he
lived but fifty-eight years, and, assuming

1739 ^^ ^^^ approximate date of his earliest
work on the first set of plates, an output of
roughly a plate a fortnight, without inter-
mission, throughout the entire remainder of
his life from his nineteenth year, is evidence
that Piranesi was as industrious as he was
skilful. But it must not be forgotten that
these 1300 plates were by no means his
only work. There was work of a kindred
type, and in particular the restorations he
carried out for Pope Clement xiii. There
is, however, one thing certain about the
position to-day of Piranesi's reputation
in the eyes of students of architecture,
and that is, that the industry which enabled
so great a quantity of work to be produced
did not mar the quality of that work or
subject it to the liability of adverse criticism,
which is often the result of a large output.
The reputation of many a painter that has
been built up by pictures hung separately
may be diminished by the sight of a collec-
tion of the one man's work seen as a whole.

For instance, when an Exhibition is held
at Burlington House of the collected works
of an artist, recently deceased, if the col-
lection is very representative, nothing is
more likely to happen than that one
comes away with the opinion that one
has seen nothing fresh to add to the
reputation of the painter, but has had a
closer and increased knowledge of his
shortcomings.

Put Piranesi to a similar test, go through
his hundreds of plates, and it will be
observed that each etching contributes
something to the degree and kind of our
appreciation. As to faults of execution,
it is surprising how difficult it is to
detect them. Examining the work of
men who etched before his time, and the
work of men who, after his death, tried to
imitate Piranesi, it will be thought that
no work can be put forward which possesses
quality sufficiently good to entitle it to be
classed as a competitor with that of Piranesi.
7

Other etchers have succeeded him, but none
have yet replaced him.

Nearly a thousand plates were published
during his lifetime, and besides the question
of monetary return the frequency with
which fresh plates appeared injured his
reputation. Had only a few subjects been
etched and a limited number of impressions
taken from the plates, the etchings would
have been eagerly sought after, and the
price obtainable correspondingly higher.

The glut was accentuated after his death,
for his sons Francesco and Pietro republished
the etchings. By that time, however, the
plates had become worn and the impressions
had lost their charm and their original
crispness. Unfortunately, the mischief did
not stop there ; the plates were republished
by Firmin Didot in 1835 at Paris, by which
time all the sharpness which was the
" quiddity " of the beauty of the etchings
had disappeared for ever.

The worn-out plates still exist, or they

did exist till lately, and recent impressions
from them are obtainable. They are, if still
existing, in the possession of the Regia
Calcografia at Rome, and of the etched
works published by Piranesi's sons impres-
sions of 1 1 80 plates can still be purchased
by those who desire etchings from which all
artistic value has long since disappeared.

To those who wish to see Giovanni Piranesi
the etcher at his best, it is useless to examine
impressions other than those published in
Rome on paper which is easily recognisable
by its texture and thickness, and which was
made on purpose for the etchings. Im-
pressions later than the original Roman
publications had better be left alone, as
they are not only disappointing as works of
art, but they entirely mislead the student
who wishes to understand how Piranesi
handled his work.

It is also beside the mark to discuss here
the various states of the plates from the
collector's point of view — that is to say, to

lOO

discuss or describe a plate in the inscription
of which a " t '' may occur sometimes
crossed and sometimes uncrossed, or minute
variations of that kind.

There were plenty of variations in the
plates. But, so long as the impressions
taken from them are of the original Roman
issue, they are all interesting for reasons much
more important than those esoteric ones by
which they would be distinguished in the
print collector's microscopic eyes.

As to the edition published in Paris, in
comparison with the original Roman im-
pressions it is unworthy of being regarded
seriously as representing Piranesi's work,
and as for the modern Roman impressions,
taken from the worn or retouched or refaced
plates, they perpetrate violence on Piranesi's
good name.

With so many plates from which to
choose, one is embarrassed by the difficulty
of selection, and one neither knows where
to begin nor when to stop. Addison's idea

lOI

of Cowley's wit might perhaps apply to
Piranesi's plates : —

"One gUtt'ring thought no sooner strikes our eyes
With silent wonder, but new wonders rise :
As in the milky way a shining white
O'erflows the heav'ns with one continued light ;
That not a single star can shew his rays,
Whilst jointly all promote the common blaze."

Account of English Poets, to Mr. H. S.

The etchings are seen to their best ad-
vantage as wall decorations, but they are
large, and take up the space usually required
by a fair-sized oil painting ; therefore, unless
the wall space be very extensive, half a
dozen Piranesi etchings are about as many
as one room will accommodate.

Then, again, almost all the original im-
pressions are equally beautiful as etched
work, and they all maintain a high level of
interest from the point of view of subject.
On the other hand, an etching or two will
no more show the irresistible force of this
man than will the bazaar-born glass paper-
weight with a photograph of Niagara

I02

reconstitute the appalling spectacle of the
Falls at flood-time. So it is hard to
decide which plates to prefer. Piranesi's
work shows that his taste was of the most
catholic kind — every style, every period,
every object attracted him. He sipped
from every flower upon which his eye
rested, he transformed his harvest into a
honey as useful as it was seductive. He
handled his subject, too, on a liberal scale, he
must express himself largely or not at all ;
he found equal pleasure in etching the
Antique, examples of the Renaissance period,
ruins in the last stage of dilapidation. Classic
monuments, bridges, churches, statues, vases,
sarcophagi, urns, candelabra, mantelpieces,
details of the water levels of lakes, ground
plans, elevations, sections of mouldings,
columns in fragments, and enrichments. In
fact, every kind of work that was fine in
conception or likely to be interesting or
instructive to the student of archaeology or
architecture, formed his farrago libellt.

PLATE XIV.

iyUtra v^duta in pnjsp^ttvveu cuUo jte£fO ^Sripijcw.

curvaporc dille oe^ ar^

FROM " VASI CANDELABRI. ETC."

I03

The most interesting designs used by the
ancients for mouldings and carved decoration
can be extracted from the etchings, and they
are therefore a mine of wealth to the crafts-
man in stone or wood. Piranesi placed in
black and white, and at the disposal of the
practical architect, a storehouse of knowledge,
which before his time had been difficult of
access, and the manner in which the Renais-
sance style of architecture unfolded and
developed itself can be followed by means
of these etchings.

As for collecting the entire set of the
etchings, the difficulty would present itself
of knowing how to deal with and arrange
the many variations ocurring in quantities
of the plates. For example, the two folios
Vedute di Roma^ published in Rome in 1770,
were originally composed of about 60 plates,
and the number grew to 137, each plate
having been issued separately and with
intervals between each publication. But
these two volumes of the Vedute di Roma

104

have, in one instance, been found to be made
up of 187 plates, most of the additional
plates being duplicates with variations of all
kinds, published during Piranesi's lifetime,
and after he had completed and published
the two folios of 1770. This set was
selected by Piranesi himself for a friend.

Some of the peculiarities of Piranesi's
workmanship which particularly attract the
craftsman are the burin work and the
general beauty produced by the etching
needle, and no man is able to realise how
much etching can accomplish until Piranesi's
execution has been examined.

De Quincey and Coleridge call Piranesi
" the Rembrandt of Etchers," and one
characteristic alone, his treatment of light
and shadow, entitles him to that description.
Then there is his imagination and love of
the gigantic, which Walpole said " would
startle Geometry and exhaust the Indies to
realise." De Quincey recalls that he had,
with Coleridge, looked over some plates

PLATE XV.

INTliUIOR OK A PRISON, KKoM --CAKCERl U'lNVKNZIONi:," I-IRST STATE, 1 y.sQ

I 12

gate Prison and the designer of the weird
Carceri d'invenzione^ who, as a result of
the custom of the Academy of the Arcadi
to rename its members, appears himself as
Salcindio Tiseio on a title-page of that
series of his etchings of imaginary buildings
which impressed Walpole. Dance was
elected in 1764 ; Piranesi had at that date
been a member for some years — certainly
prior to 1750.

It is interesting to note that after being
made a member of this Society Piranesi
picked his usual quarrel with another
member, an architect, at an early oppor-
tunity.

Dance was given the whole credit for
the architectural masterpiece which Old
Newgate Prison undoubtedly was. But,
inspired by Piranesi, who had lately
created the Carceri d'invenzione^ and
who was, if one adopts Professor Blom-
field's estimate, the greatest architectural
draughtsman who ever lived, it was placed

113

in the power of Dance to produce a result
which it was impossible for Dance again
to match unaided, or in other directions.
Professor Blomfield goes so far as to give
the opinion that Newgate was, to all intents,
more Piranesi than Dance.

Another English architect enlisted his
help. The Pitt Bridge over the Thames,
finished in 1769 and commonly known as
Old Blackfriars Bridge, was etched by
Piranesi. When the plans of this Bridge
were still in an undecided state, Robert
Mylne, the architect, who had studied at
Rome, handed a portion of his design to
Piranesi, who elaborated it, and also etched
a view of the bridge for Mylne at Rome in
1766.

Piranesi corresponded with Mylne over
a number of years, but although he
maintained intimate relations with several
English artists there are no evidences of his
ever having been in England.

The temperament of Piranesi had the

114

fullest effect upon his work. If his triumphs
brought him elation, he was in turn afflicted
with a despair that was almost infernal. It
was during those moments of gloom that he
saw nothing but the failure of his career
and a lost reputation. Under such mental
distress were imagined the Carceri designs,
and those sketches of ruins wherein grotesque
impossibility was blended with reality. For
instance, he gives a plate of a Roman altar,
half eaten away by age and covered with
the damp moss of centuries — desolation,
utter desolation, decay, disaster, all written
in every line. But no real ruin was ever
like this, it is purely the work of imagina-
tion, just as in Greek tragedy horror is piled
upon horror, in order to shock the mind
into a fitting condition of awe. The very
shattered columns he drew, bound and
twisted around with creepers, writhe almost
in human agony. The despair, dissolution,
and solitude conveyed by this treatment
perhaps taught Gustave Dore how to handle

1^5

the horrors with which he illustrated Le
Juif Errant ; the same blending of sensation
real and unreal may have enabled Edgar
Allan Poe to arrive at a similar result in
his stories.

To return to Piranesi's artistic character-
istics, his chief strength lay in execution.
At times his drawing was faulty and his
perspective bad. He even violated the rules
of proportion and in many ways disregarded
the rule of perspective whenever he found
that course necessary for the better expression
of his ideas. It is certain that he intention-
ally drew thus for the purpose of obtaining
particular effects, but whether this is an
excuse worth anything or not, it is evident
at a glance that several of his towers are
drawn incorrectly. With an ellipse he was
hopelessly impotent, his horizon is often
taken too high, and sometimes his objects
are crowded, but

" Ubi plura nitent . . . non ego pauics
OfFendar macuHs."

ii6

In addition to faulty draughtsmanship,
Piranesi indulged a habit of deliberately-
amplifying in the plate the proportions of a
building actually before him. The Veduta
deir insigne Basilica Vaticana colT amplio
Portico e Piazza adjacente^ and in fact most
of his etchings of S. Pietro in Vaticano, are
relevant as evidence in support of this asser-
tion. Indeed, he dreamed and drew Rome
more splendid than she had been, even at
the zenith of her magnificence. This extra-
vagance brought him into a dispute with
Abbe Martin Choupy of Cap Martin, the
investigator of Horace's Villa, who claimed
that Piranesi had not been generally faithful
to his subject. Piranesi thought it prudent
to treat the matter as a joke, and to reply
verbally, rather than to give Choupy the
opportunity which a reply upon etched
plate or letter paper would have afforded.
The facts were plainly as stated by the Abbe,
and Piranesi had no defence.

The modifications and additions of this

117

nature were not, however, made out of
vulgar untruthfulness or dishonesty. With
a fertile imagination, aided by an instinctive
archaeological knowledge and appreciation,
Piranesi was convinced that he could im-
prove on the proportions of the scene before
him, and as to him and to his patrons the
centre of the world was Rome, there could,
he thought, be no act of deception in his
varying on paper the representation of build-
ings which must be as well known to the
artistic world as was his own right hand
to the etcher himself. Piranesi considered
Rome was so unlike any other city, that
what was strange and ill-suited to another
city was natural and proper in her case ; and
in some instances, indeed, where Piranesi
felt that he could improve upon the propor-
tions of a scene or building, the effect he
has obtained may be considered by some as
almost sufficient to justify the tampering, so
far as designing is concerned.

His view, apparently, was, that after all,

ii8

there were modern architects equal to those
of the past, and that infallibility did not
of necessity always lie on the side of the
ancients. It has been claimed that Piranesi
was not so untruthful as one might imagine,
the explanation that is put forward by the
late Mr. Russell Sturgis being that " he
gave us the aspect of many a fine old build-
ing in its more perfect condition before the
havoc wrought by one and more centuries
of Popes and Princes and of ignorant
peasants, and also before the cleaning up of
the present archaeological epoch." But that
explanation certainly will not cover, for
instance, Piranesi's extensions of Bernini's
curved colonnades flanking the steps and
Piazza of St. Peter's. These curved colon-
nades never extended to the distance shown
in Piranesi's plates during the etcher's life-
time, or at any other time.

Piranesi strove to realise in his etched
work the brilliant atmosphere of Italy. The
contrasts between his sunshine and shadow

PLATE XVIII.

ST. PRTKR'S AT ROME.

119

are effects which soon strike even a person
entirely without knowledge of etching and
its kindred arts. And there is probably no
other etcher who has more nearly succeeded
in conveying to the eye the impression of
colour, and by means only of black ink on
white paper.

This was the result of Piranesi's habit of
working out of doors ; he thus had constantly
before his eyes the exact values of the shade
and light, while the distinctions between the
various colours were intensified by the brilli-
ancy of the Italian atmosphere. When a
portion of the subject on a plate is thrown into
excessive shadow no detail is lost, every line is
apparent, just as one can distinguish leaves
notwithstanding the deep shadow of a forest.
And this is no mean achievement, for the
weatherbeaten and faded stone colours of
his subject usually lent but little assistance
towards Piranesi's sharply defined contrasts
of shadow and light. But at times the limit
is overstepped and the balance ruined.

I20

Then, with the extreme contrasts of light
and shade, the sight is often baffled, and
there is nothing left but for the eye to grope
for what is intended. The printing of the
plate, or help from the printer, have nothing
whatever to do with the intense depths of
light and shadow. The entire effect is
produced by the etching tools ; every value,
every stroke has been laid on with the
precisely desired pressure and swell, without
hesitation, and with perfect craftsmanship :
from that came the impression, pure and
deeply bitten.

Figures of men and sometimes goats
perched on fragments of stone are introduced
into the etchings in order to show the pro-
portions of a column, or other portion of a
building, and the costumes of such figures
are often of the period in which Piranesi
lived. He was fond, too, of the figures of
beggars in picturesque rags — old friends of
his who had once on a time served him
as models — and he caused them to appear

121

gesticulating in a very lively fashion, cer-
tainly appropriate to their vocation, but
also entirely characteristic of the energy and
impetuosity of the etcher himself. The
movement of arms and hands in the figures
of the beggars may indeed faithfully repre-
sent the gestures of the Italian, always so
delightfully expressive ; but in the etchings
the interest they create is intensified by the
probability that possibly they may have
unconsciously reflected Piranesi's own fiery
personal mannerisms.

Reference has already been made to the
influence of Piranesi upon Dance, the archi-
tect of Newgate. Now, while Dance was
at work on the Newgate drawings, there
was in his employ an errand-boy or ap-
prentice named Soan, afterwards known as
Sir John Soane (1753-1837), architect of
the Bank of England. I would like to say
here that a very high authority is quite
incorrect in stating that Soane's name was
originally Swan. Mr. Walter Spiers,

122

Curator of the Sir John Soane's Museum,
has been kind enough to show me ample
proof that Soane's father's name was Soan,
and that the son remained Soan till 1783-4
when, having grown prosperous, he added
the fashionable "e.'*

The boy Soan's mind was impressed by
the work which his master, Dance, was
carrying out, and there is reason to suspect
that the feeling and treatment of Soane's
Bank of England building were due to this
Dance-Piranesi-Soane influence. " The cask
remembers its first wine," as Horace has said.

Soane having acquired an affectation of
the Classic, grew into the habit of following
Piranesi's ideas, and then attained the power
of absorbing the marked peculiarities of the
treatment and adapting them to his own
purposes. Soane did not rely on Piranesi's
etchings. He made elaborate drawings
and measured plans of the Temple of Sibyl
at Tivoli. The Sir John Soane's Museum
contains a number of Soane's drawings of

123

this nature, and, in addition, a quantity
of interesting drawings of ruins by Robert
Adam, which recall Piranesi's type of work
and were probably drawn by Adam when
he was in Italy and in close touch with
Piranesi and Clerisseau.

In this Museum are the drawings which
perhaps are as well known as any of
Piranesi's works — those of the Temple of
Neptune at Passtum, executed by Piranesi
and his son Francesco. They aflford proper
opportunity of seeing the method by which
the father worked, and also of judging how
good was Francesco's work.

The association between Soane and the
Piranesi family endured longer than
Piranesi*s life. The Soane Museum gives
proof that Soane continued it by a friend-
ship with Piranesi's son Francesco, for in
the Museum there exist records that
Francesco Piranesi actually gave Sir John
Soane the Paestum series of drawings re-
ferred to above

124

All this serves as evidence that Piranesi's
influence on them and their work was of
great importance, to architectural as well
as to furniture designers, during the period
1750 to 1820.

Not content with only influencing
architecture and furniture, Piranesi even
rambled into bookplates, designing and
signing one for " Mr. Menzies.'' Mr.
Menzies' bookplate is entirely such as
might be expected from Piranesi's hand,
a pictorial landscape, characteristic and in
his peculiar style. This is an exceedingly
rare plate, it is known and recorded and has
been reproduced ; but an original example
is not in the British Museum. No other
English bookplate by Piranesi is known :
that of the Earl of Aylesford, though like
the work of Piranesi and usually attributed
to him, is unsigned. The Earl of Alyesford
is stated to have been himself an accom-
plished draughtsman, and, as he also
published etchings of his own, the proba-

PLATE XIX.

FROM AN ORIGINAL DRAWING IN TIIR BRITISH MUSEUM.

125

bility is that it was he who did this book-
plate, and not Piranesi.

Piranesi threw off multitudes of inter-
esting small sepia drawings, mostly of
architectural designs, and similar to his
published etchings in subject and treatment,
but they have attracted no attention in
comparison with the etchings.

In addition to the Paestum drawings at
the Soane Museum, there are a few
drawings at the British Museum, and in
these, as in the Soane drawings, red chalk
is employed to strengthen the effect.
Among those in the British Museum is a
curious drawing, probably with Pompeii
as the scene, wherein an assassination is
about to take place, — two men, carrying
a corpse, are passing another intended
victim, — a weird, imaginative, Piranesi
piece of work. With it is a much finer
drawing of an idea for a Temple of
Victory. These drawings all go to one
of two extremes, they are either just

126

" knocked in," or the details are executed
with extraordinary minuteness.

In furniture and in the decoration of
the interior of houses the names of Adam
and Wedgwood seem to connect them-
selves — Wedgwood's pottery being of
course analogous to Adam's style of decora-
tion in almost every respect. Wedgwood's
plaques are often found in Adam furniture
and decoration, and Sheraton employed
Wedgwood continually. There is still to
be seen a drawing from Sheraton's hand,
showing Wedgwood plaques of Classic
subjects, in a design for an existing satin-
wood piano-case made in 1796 for Don
Manuel de Godoy, Prince of the Peace.

In much of the Classic pottery-work
produced by Wedgwood there are character-
istics easily traceable to Piranesi's etchings.
Flaxman was employed by Wedgwood
and Bentley about 1778, the year of
Piranesi's death ; by that date, of course,
Piranesi and his works had become well

127

known in England. Shortly after he had
been engaged by Wedgwood, Flaxman
visited Rome.

Now, if one examines work executed for
Wedgwood by Flaxman, and then turns
over the pages of Piranesi's folios, the
evidence is strong, on the ground of
similarity of treatment in the designs, that
Flaxman's mind was influenced and helped
by the records of Antique decoration which
had been scarcely available to artists and
designers until Piranesi had collected,
etched, and placed them at the world's
disposal. And in confirmation of this, it
may be again mentioned that Piroli, the
pupil and principal helper of Piranesi, was
Flaxman's friend ; moreover, Piroli did
work for Flaxman under the latter's close
personal direction (see page 31).

Then, again, there is further evidence of
Piranesi's influence in Wedgwood pottery
through Angelini. Angelini was that
friend of Piranesi who executed the statue

128

of the etcher which stands near the spot
where Piranesi lies buried, and Wedgwood
employed Angelini as a modeller : he exe-
cuted a considerable amount of work for
the celebrated potter.

The purity of the taste of Wedgwood,
attracted by that similar quality in Piranesi,
instinctively recognised in the latter's work
a powerful ally, and eagerly availed itself
of the men who were saturated, not only
with the personality of Piranesi, but with
work and design as interpreted by Piranesi
in his own peculiar manner.

The etchings of the Paestum temples
were among the favourites of Piranesi ; they
also show how he could handle deep and
black shadows. He has made the most
of his capacity to deal with absolute black
and intense white while etching the
shattered fragments of architecture strewn
on the sites of the temples. Sturgis has
told us that in the middle of the eighteenth
century the Paestum temples were as

129

ruinous as now — for 150 years not a stone
has fallen. This shows that time has little to
do with the destruction of a solid building —
man is the culprit — so long as no disaster
such as an earthquake or a flood occurs
meantime. The Paestum temples suffered
more at the hands of the inhabitants of the
town of Pesto than from anything during
the centuries which have passed over
them since the inhabitants left that fever-
stricken district. Poseidonia, Passtum, Pesto,
existed as a city for about 1 500 years,
better known for its roses than for its
importance as a city or port — it filled the
flower vases of the Northern Italian cities
as does the South of France for us to-day.
Passtum rose trees blossomed twice a year —

" biferique rosaria Paesti."

Verg. Georg. 4. 119.

Although Piranesi employed the Temple

of Neptune at Paestum to support his

Etruscan theory, Paestum was a Dorian

Greek city, a colony of Sybaris, founded

I30

about 600 B.C. It was brought under
Roman rule after the failure of Pyrrhus's
invasion in 273 b.c. It languished as a
city, and the Saracens destroyed it in the
ninth century ; the site of the place is
now a desolate waste. Within the Greek
walls of a circuit of two and a half miles,
with eight towers and four gates, are the
ruins of three Doric temples, perhaps the
most wonderful remains of Greek archi-
tecture, with the exception of the temples
at Athens. There are also remains of a
Roman amphitheatre and temple. The
most interesting of the temples is that of
Neptune, the entablature and pediments of
which are practically intact. All the ex-
terior columns and most of the interior were
standing in Piranesi's time. There are
fourteen columns on the flanks on a stylo-
bate of three steps ; the cella has two double
ranges of seven Doric columns, the lower
tiers of which are still complete, and ex-
posure to weather has given the stone a

131

mellow rich colour. This temple dates
from the fifth century B.C. The other, dedi-
cated to Ceres, is constructed in a manner
similar to that of the Temple of Neptune,
and goes back to the sixth century B.C. The
Basilica, which Piranesi calls " the house of
the Amphictyonic Council," is of Greek
Doric structure, built in an unusual way.
Many theories have been advanced to ex-
plain its uncommon plan, the most reason-
able being that the temple was double, one
half being dedicated to the worship of
Demeter, the other to Persephone. This
too belongs to the early portion of the sixth
century B.C. Piranesi was quite wrong in his
contentions about Etruscan work at Paestum
(see page 14), and he was not justified in
the attempt to convert into dogma that
which was no more than his personal
opinion founded upon imperfect information.
The etchings of these P^stum temples
are as well known in England as any of
Piranesi's works.

132

Among the other favourites of the etcher
was the Pantheon. He etched in detail
several plates of the Pantheon with the
utmost care : he reproduced to scale com-
plete plans, sections, and elevations of this
building.

His son Francesco etched and published
several excellent plates of the Pantheon; they
appear in company with his father's etched
plates of the same building, but without
acknowledgment of assistance from his
father's elaborate studies, to which Francesco
undoubtedly had access.

The scratch of Piranesi's needle has con-
jured on to paper fine old designs of every
kind. The American architects have drawn
liberally on his entire output, and the result
is a delight to the eye. In America, for
public buildings, the Classic form of archi-
tecture is exceedingly popular — in the
Dominion singularly so. Canadian bank-
buildings, and they are certainly plentiful
enough everywhere to force themselves on

^00

the eye, almost invariably suggest the Classic
style of architecture.

That may perhaps be traced to the strong
element of Scotch origin among the leading
men in Canadian public and commercial
life. Edinburgh itself, Robert Adam and
the Classic style have remained in the recol-
lection of the Scottish-born Canadians, and
have influenced and still influence their
taste. Admirable in many cases are the
results.

A few examples of the style are — the City
Hall and the Illinois Trust Buildings at
Chicago ; the Capitol at Minneapolis ; the
Knickerbocker Trust Building on Fifth
Avenue, New York ; the decorations of the
Library of the University Club, New York;
the interior of the Bank of Montreal at
Montreal ; and the treatment of the exteriors
of many of the public buildings in New
York. The whole design of the recently
erected Station for the Pennsylvania Rail-
road*s tunnels under the Hudson River was

134

inspired by that of the Baths of Caracalla.
It is not altogether fanciful to assert that
in many instances a touch of Piranesi's
assistance is to be found.

During the eighteenth century it was the
habit of Englishmen to travel abroad, and
especially to visit Italy. Those w^ho had
sufficient funds, or credit, or neither, took to
collecting objets d'art^ not entirely as an
intellectual pleasure, but because they found
v^hile in Italy it vv^as becoming the fashion
to collect, and besides, it not only gave the
traveller occupation, but also enabled him,
on his return, to produce silent evidence of
that superiority with which a grand tour
was considered to stamp a man, as nowadays
heads of big game win social consideration
and excite envy. Quantities of works of art
were procured, often with little discrimina-
tion ; houses in England became decorated
with the spoils, and the monotonouswalls that
are still hung with Italian paintings of the
late seventeenth and early eighteenth century

^35

owe their sombre unpopularity to the hunt
for grand -tour trophies fashionable in
Piranesi's time. In his day Italy was attract-
ive for reasons other than for itself alone.
There were two special reasons : Venice and
Rome. Venice in the eighteenth century
was the bear-garden and playground of
Europe. The Bourbons ruled at Naples
and Milan was subject to Austria, but
Venice, her own mistress and under no
external restraint, was whirling herself
towards disaster in an orgy of pleasure
provided by wealth acquired in the days of
her earlier commercial ascendancy. Money
flowed like water in Venice, and M. Monnier
has described the scene and how her day
closed to the sounds of revelry and the
rattle of squandered gold.

The desire of Piranesi's father that his
son should return to Venice was born of
the hope that the son should benefit by the
extravagances of the Venetians and by the
streams of gold poured out for works of art

13^

by visitors to their city. Venice alone
among Italian cities in the eighteenth century
possessed the attraction of a school of
painting of her own ; she had a style of her
own, and Venetian painters took rank with
the most celebrated artists in Europe.
There was Canaletto whose pictures can still
be read for the news of his day ; they are
as talkative as are the halfpenny morning
papers of more modern times. There was
Longhi, the Lancret of Venice, with his
pastel box, Guardi, Marieschi, and Bellotto.
The Venice that attracted and dazzled the
world of rank and fashion with her fetes
and follies, picnics, plays, people, and
scandal, is all chronicled in the newspapers
that Canaletto published and called pictures.
And how well he knew how to interest
his readers when he threw a scarlet cloak
against a piece of yellow brickwork, or
made the light on a gondola's metal fittings
sing a duet with the lavender tints of the
Canal. He jotted it all down for you.

^Z1

everything that went on, and anything he
overlooked Guardi perceived and recorded.
Every one went to Venice ; politics did not
count there, and no Venetian had time or
inclination to weary visitors with discussions
of an intellectual kind.

It was in very truth the delightful place
that Casanova in an outburst of honest
gratitude and admiration declared the world
to be. Nothing really serious was happen-
ing there in those times, except perhaps
that the year 1757 was marked by a visit
from an Irish giant who asserted that he
was the tallest man in Europe and weighed
thirty stone. The Venice of that date may
perhaps be best described as Venice with the
addition of a city made up by turning
Constantinople loose in Paris and throwing
in all the amusements and characteristics of
modern Monte Carlo. It did not, in 1765,
leave even Gibbon unmoved. "The spec-
tacle of Venice afforded some hours of
astonishment." As Gibbon usually thought

138

in centuries the word " hours '' is pleasing.
Beckford called the Campanile the Tower
of Babel; Goethe was fascinated by the
glittering enchantment of Venice, and
Voltaire epitomises the matter by that
scene in Candide where the hero dines in
Venice with six chance companions who
turn out to be kings holiday-making.
Everything was thought of in the diminu-
tive and frivolous key : — in the morning a
little prayer, in the afternoon a little card-
playing, in the evening a little love-making.
Tiepolo became Tiepoletto. There was
reverence for nothing, except for Night ;
the respectful attitude of the Venetian
towards the Beauty of Night was as extra-
ordinary as it was humble.

In no capital, indeed in no city in the
world was society more polished, foolish,
elegant, spendthrift, and entertaining than at
Venice, and the very excesses of frivolity
helped to provide the reaction which
indirectly induced the cultivated and

139

wealthy to turn towards the quiet pleasures
of collecting works of art. The extrava-
gances were almost beyond conception.
The Pisani family entertained Gustavus of
Sweden in such a lavish fashion that he
declared it would have been impossible for
him to return the hospitality. M. Monnier
relates in his delightful book that in the
winter of 1782 the future Czar Paul and his
wife were received with fetes of a magnifi-
cence equalled only in the pages of the
Arabian Nights : a regatta on the Canal,
a bullfight in the Piazza, a banquet in the
theatre of S. Samuele, the auditorium and
whole stage of which were hung from ceiling
to floor with satin and silver ; and when the
Emperor Joseph 11. came, the entire dock of
St. Mark was turned into a magician's lake
and a garden of enchantment, with wooded
islets, music, myrtle groves, nymphs and
grottos, and at night Venice was illuminated
and dressed with flags. The private libraries
of the great Venetian families were the

140

admiration of every student, and the Forsetti
had founded the finest botanical garden in
the world. There was a private Academy
of Fine Arts in the home of the Pisani, and
Pietro Longhi was its curator. Rosalba
was painting everybody ; Pasquali Albrizzi
and Zatta were producing books that were
the most delicious specimens of the printer's
art. Casanova was practising adventures for
his own amusement which he afterwards
recorded for our instruction. Da Ponte
was composing libretti for Mozart, every one
was enjoying himself, some in scoffing at the
serious who, in turn, philosophised about
the fun of the scoffers. And, lest anything
should be wanting to make the whole
perfect, Venice was supplied with an
adequate seasoning of great English milords
with the spleen.

Rome was the other magnet, from the
poles of which flowed currents charged
with sentimental and political attraction for
the opponents of the Hanoverian dynasty

PLATE XXI.

FONTANA DI THEVI AT ROME.

141

in Great Britain ; the old Pretender lived
there till his death, and Prince Charles
Edward on the death of his father had
made Rome his own headquarters. In the
plates of Piranesi's Vast Candelabri many
of the names to whom certain of the plates
are dedicated have a Scottish ring about
them, and Sir Walter Scott's dining parlour
was hung with some of the impressions.
Apart from the mere pleasure of travelling
in Italy and visiting Venice and Rome,
wealthy Britons had taken kindly to col-
lecting, and had by degrees acquired the
habit of employing special agents in Rome
to watch for, and to secure on their behalf,
the prizes won by the delvings and diggings
that were carried out from time to time in
and around Rome.

In the days after the '45, Winckelmann
was in great repute ; the opinions he held,
as a result of studies in Rome (published
in 1764 in his History of Ancient Art)^ had
roused the enthusiasm of such men as

142

Lessing, Schiller, and Goethe. His formulae
became a frequent theme for discussion ; his
descriptions of the Two Graces, in which he
developed the idea of an antithesis between
the Lofty and the Beautiful, drew admira-
tion from every scholar. Thus it was that
the world of his day arrived at the point
where it agreed with Winckelmann's views,
and accepted them as the true expression
of the general principles of the Art of
Classical Antiquity. The scattered embers
of artistic perception steadily coaxed by
Winckelmann, were fanned into flame by
the interest excited by Piranesi*s etchings ;
the taste for the Antique, especially for the
severity of fine statuary, grew more and
more pronounced, and at length delight
in aesthetic ornament burst into an intense
passion.

Winckelmann and Piranesi, each from his
own particular standpoint, had been edu-
cating and directing the public towards the
appreciation of what they described as the

143

Beautiful and the Noble. Unceasingly

they preached as their text —

". . . exemplaria Graeca
nocturna versate manu, versate diurna."

Winckelmann was the High Priest of
what he himself calls " noble simplicity
and calm grandeur,'* and Piranesi, more
articulate by reason of his power of etching,
" Poet Laureate of the Ruins." Both of these
men were cultivated even by those Italians
who, principally to be in the fashion, had
thrown themselves into Art collecting. The
consequence was that they were brought by
their patrons and admirers into contact with
the streams of visitors to Rome. As to
Piranesi, his excitable and quarrelsome
habits do not appear to have interfered with
his popularity among collectors, nor to have
lessened the general appreciation of his
genius. Every door in Rome seems to
have been open to him, and he was wel-
comed everywhere. Speaking broadly,
music, cards, Piranesi, and Art chatter

144

provided an entertainment increasingly ac-
ceptable to the Italian nobility at Rome,
and at the same time amusing to their
foreign guests. If in their capacity of
entertainers, in the salons of their Roman
admirers, Winckelmann and Piranesi quietly
proceeded with the work of educating
Society, and then, to use an expressive
colloquialism, " booming " the taste for
collecting, they did so in no unworthy
manner and for no unworthy purpose.
They at last placed the real love of
collecting on its firmest feet, endowed
it with life, and dispatched it on its
way. They inspired with their own en-
thusiasm, among others, the Earl of Shel-
burne, Charles Townley, Thomas Mansel
Talbot, Lord Lincoln, Lord Egremont, Coke
of Norfolk's great-uncle, Thomas Coke of
Holkham, and many other lesser lights.
To some extent the reputation on the Con-
tinent of Europe, for the prodigality and
madness, even then usually thought to be

PLATE XXII.

VILIJV ALBANI, NEAR ROME.

145

enjoyed by Englishmen, was confirmed, if
not indeed founded, by the liberal manner in
which the English amateurs bought or paid
for their purchases. In such times and
under such conditions was founded the
Townley collection of marbles, now the
pride of the British Museum, and with the
willing assistance of the two principal
British antiquarian agents in Rome, Lans-
downe House and Petworth were similarly
adorned by their respective owners. Num-
bers of other English amateurs and collectors
became interested in Piranesi, and many of
their names can be seen in his etchings.
The principal agents assisting the collectors
were two painters, but as painters they are
not usually recalled. One was Jenkins,
who as an artist had accompanied to Rome
Richard Wilson, the great English landscape
painter. Jenkins learnt much in his com-
pany, though apparently not of painting,
and having amassed a considerable fortune
by favour of Clement xiv., at length

146

became the principal English banker in
Rome ; on the arrival of the French, how-
ever, he was driven from the city, and all
his property was confiscated by them. He
fled to England, and died at Great Yarmouth
immediately on his landing after a storm at
sea, in 1798.

The other was Gavin Hamilton, of
Murdieston, a portrait painter, who had
spent most of his life at Rome, where he
ultimately died of fright, during the French
invasion in 1797.

They dabbled at first as collectors for
their own pleasure, and as amateurs. But
by degrees both took seriously to selling for
profit, and at length were able to gather
around them a valuable circle of customers.
Jenkins financed the partnership, and
Hamilton was the salesman. As time went
on, Hamilton found his aboveground supply
of objets d'art less than enough to meet the
demand of his customers ; he forthwith
turned to excavating, and with capital

147

success. To Gavin Hamilton certainly
must be given credit for having played the
chief part in getting together one or more
of the collections which, in course of time,
w^ent to form the British Museum.

Monsieur GefFroy, dealing with some
unedited papers of Francesco Piranesi at
Stockholm, tells of Gavin Hamilton. He
was, says M. Geffroy, celebrated in Rome,
" par ses belles manieres qui n'excluaient
pas I'habilete," and he rendered himself
interesting by the tears he shed on effecting
a sale of a work of art. It is reassuring,
however, to learn that he solaced himself
with large profits for the pain he suffered
by being deprived of the pleasure of retain-
ing any particular specimen. It fell to
Hamilton's good fortune to deal with such
treasures of the Villa Montalto as remained
from the collection gathered together there
by Sixtus v., while that Pope was still
Cardinal Peretti de Montalto, but the supply
of fine things fell short of the demands of

148

Hamilton's customers. And the Villa
Montalto stood on no ordinary soil. It had
once been the garden of Maecenas, with all its
masterpieces. Nor could Jenkins materially
assist in keeping pace with the demand,
though good fortune afforded him the
opportunity of stripping, not only the Villa
d'Este at Tivoli, but also the Villa Mattei.

The clamours of Hamilton's and Jenkins'
eager buyers were difficult to satisfy, and
therefore, it is said, Jenkins caused cameos
and intaglios to be made, and, on propitious
nights, planted teeming furrows of them in
the ruins of the Colosseum. The abundant
harvest followed in proper season. He then
passed on to the next step in the rotation,
and sowed a crop of sepulchral urns bearing
attractive but ill-fitting inscriptions. Joseph
Nollekens, R.A., relates, says " Rainy Day "
Smith, that he saw Jenkins' men preparing
the cameos, and that Jenkins gave him a
" whole handful to say nothing about the
matter to any one else but myself"

149

Farming under such conditions could not
fail to be lucrative, and Hamilton then
looked around for an increased acreage of
likely soil. His next move was to turn an
inquisitive spade in the grounds of the
Villa of Hadrian at Tivoli. The Villa had,
even prior to that date, yielded many
fine things. He drained a swamp there in
1769, and dug. The swamp itself was the
bed of the Lake Pantanello ; it lay about
two miles from Tivoli, and although formerly
a portion of Hadrian's Tiburtine Villa, was
at that time the property of the Lolli family.
An excavation had already been made on
the site by that family, but Hamilton
determined to reinvestigate the spot. His
proceedings are narrated by Dallaway, who
quotes Hamilton's letters to Townley, the
collector of the marbles now in the British
Museum. Hamilton's men found an outlet
for the water of Pantanello by working a
passage to an old drain cut in the tufa.
They worked for weeks by lamplight up to

I50

the knees in stagnant slime; full of toads and
serpents, but found little, Lolli having
already discovered all there was. Some
labourers, however, who formerly had been
employed by Lolli, put the explorers on a
fresh scent, and a hole containing trunks
of trees was at length discovered. Here
Hamilton's success, genuine or not, was
certainly extraordinary. More than sixty
pieces of sculpture, some of them of extreme
beauty and fineness, came to light. Quan-
tities of statues and trees, the remains, prob-
ably, of a sacred grove, were found, and, of
the sculptures taken from the hole, the
following were bought by Lord Shelburne,
at the costs noted, and are at Lansdowne
House —

Statue of Cincinnatus .... ;f 500

Statue of Paris ..... 200

Cupid and Psyche .... 300

Antinous ...... 50

Antinous as an Egyptian Deity . . 75

Bust of a Victor in the Olympic Games 75

Pudicitia ...... 50

Head of a Muse . . . . . 15

151

Two Egyptian Idols in black marble . ;^I50
Bas-relief in black marble ... 50

Hamilton went farther afield after the
neighbourhood of the Pantanello swamp
had been cropped barren. He began to
delve the whole district lying on the
outskirts of Rome, succeeding meantime
in attracting foreign Sovereigns as buyers of
the spoils. In fact, Hamilton and Jenkins
reigned supreme in the salons as leaders
of the then prevailing fashion, which
became so attractive and popular that at
length the crowned and coroneted heads
of Europe began to devote themselves to
the collecting of antique statuary with the
zeal nowadays applied by their successors
to the doing of humane and charitable
works. Goethe himself, in his Winckel-
mann^ claims that posterity is indebted to
Gavin Hamilton for having widened the
field from which painters could draw
their subjects, for they were enabled by
the study of masterpieces, unearthed by

152

Hamilton, to produce work with increased
correctness of drawing, and with greater
regard for beauty of form.

Hamilton extended his researches to Tor
Colombaro, on the Appian Way. Two
spots he excavated, one a temple of
Domitian, and the other a Villa of Gallienus,
both the property of Cardinal Chigi, and
about nine miles from Rome. Gallienus
had robbed the temple and had trans-
ferred its contents to his own Villa. The
Lansdowne Marcus Aurelius {£2^0) , the
Amazon (/^2oo), the Hermes (Meleager)
(^600) owe to Hamilton their rescue
from the soil on which the Villa stood,
as does the Discobolos in the Musee Pio-
Clementino. In view of the prices paid
for works of art at the present day, it is
interesting to note in the Report of the
Elgin Committee of the House of Commons
(p. 98) that it is stated that the Lans-
downe collection of Roman marbles was
acquired for ^7000, and Payne Knight

153

in his evidence before the Committee
placed the value of the collection at
^11, GOO. Hamilton also explored Monte
Cagnolo, the Villa of Antoninus Pius, but
as his commission from Lord Shelburne
had been suspended in 1773, the Lansdow^ne
collection contains nothing from that spot.
In Hamilton's letters to Lord Shelburne
frequent reference is made to the necessity
of " smuggling " the pieces of sculpture
out of Papal dominions, as the Pope in-
sisted upon having the first refusal of
them for himself. Hamilton records that
he had to do certain things for the
purpose " of keeping Visconti and his
companion my friends." Visconti super-
intended archaeological researches on behalf
of the Papal authorities, having succeeded
Winckelmann as Surveyor of Antiquities,
and he exercised that office till his death
in 1784. His famous son, Ennio Quirino
Visconti, produced, among other publica-
tions, a work on the Inscriptions of the

154

Jenkins collection, and followed his father
in the completion of the celebrated work
Museum Pio-Glementhnim. His views must
be accepted with reserve, for the Danish
archaeologist Zoega has said that Visconti
was always ready with an explanation
whether the subject admitted of an ex-
planation or not. In a letter of ist July
1773, Hamilton informs Lord Shelburne
" Piranese is come down of his price of
the candelabri to 130 zechines which he
says is the lowest he can sell them for,
so shall await your lordship's further
orders." He again refers to these
"candelabri of Piranese" in a letter of
9th August 1775. In a Memorandum
by Lord Shelburne on his collection of
sculpture (Feb. 1777) there is the following
entry : —

" No. 3. Blue Room.
No. 2. Urns and Vases. I have 6 of these in all —
all very indifferent except one I bought of
Dean the Painter and which he had of
Piranesi. It is engraved in his w^orks."

155

Although the fashion had taken some
years to work its way through to the
highest stratum of society, it had been
assisted on its journey by the habits then
prevailing among the Italians, and more
particularly among the Venetians. As a
reaction and protest against the incessant
gaieties and the thoughtless extravagances
of the day, many well-placed Italians, even
if comfortably endowed, had, for some
years before the publication of Piranesi's
etchings, maintained the thrifty but un-
genial practice of not allowing their homes
to be used for hospitable gatherings,
or indeed for scarcely any simple social
meeting wherein monetary outlay would
be incurred. Every effort was made to
reduce the housekeeper's expenditure to a
minimum, but the leading families made
it a point of honour to divert a portion
of their retrenchments towards the upkeep
and replenishing of family collections of
works of art, and others began to study

156

and to collect, in order to acquire stronger
title to social advancement. These motives
were nearly sufficient to render a fine work
of art certain of obtaining proper recogni-
tion, but there was an additional incentive
to collecting because the taste for gambling,
always present among the idle of all
countries, could be gratified by the hazard
of a speculation in mining for statues and
for objects of archaeological interest, and
among the spoils removed in after years
from Italy to the Louvre were many
pieces of sculpture which Francesco Pira-
nesi or Hamilton or Jenkins had seen dug up,
and the cost of whose discovery represents
an Italian noble's larder economies.

Catherine ii., Augustus of Saxony, Fer-
dinand IV. of Naples, and the Grand Duke
of Tuscany specially distinguished them-
selves as collectors. But with Gustavus iii.
of Sweden rests the supreme distinction of
having been the first Sovereign actually
to maintain at Rome a properly accredited

157

Minister for the transaction of affairs con-
nected with Art, for that and for no other
purpose. Gustavus, while Crown Prince,
had shown an early inclination towards
collecting works of art. This taste had
been encouraged and educated by his tutor,
the cultivated Tessin, himself an ardent
collector, who, in former days, while
Swedish Ambassador at the Court of
Louis XV., had been the friend of Boucher,
and on terms of intimacy with the artistic
Bohemia of Paris of that date.

Gustavus's taste for collecting increased
with age ; he interested himself in all
matters connected with Art, properly
avoiding " oil painting " as the usual and
sole definition of Art, and by degrees got
together a collection of objects of the
utmost beauty, which he later on handed
over to the Museum at Stockholm.

Now, among the foreign diplomats ac-
credited to the Swedish King was Bianconi,
Minister from the Saxon Court, and a

158

personal friend of Piranesi. Bianconi, who
wrote Piranesi's obituary notice in the
Antologia Romana^ formed a link between
the etcher and the Crown Prince of Sweden ;
and when the latter, after two journeys to
Italy, at length determined to enrich the
Stockholm Museum with specimens of
the Antique, he turned for assistance to
Francesco, the son of the now deceased
Piranesi. Gustavus had first seen Francesco
at Pisa some years before, and Francesco
Piranesi thus became the Swedish Agent,
formally appointed, but of course not
received by the Pope, being the repre-
sentative of a Protestant Sovereign.

The famous statue of Endymion at Stock-
holm was bought by Gustavus iii. at
Francesco Piranesi's recommendation. It is
recognised as being a fine work, and is con-
sidered to be of earlier date than that of the
reign of Hadrian, from the ruins of whose
Villa at Tivoli it was reported to have
been dug. Whether there is ground for

159

thinking it was the fruit of carefully sown
seed, it is not necessary to discuss here in
connection with Piranesi, as he was not
in any way concerned with that part of
the statue's possible history.

After some years, Gustavus purchased
from Francesco Piranesi the collection
formed by his father, paying Francesco a
life annuity of 630 sequins^ in return,
which Francesco seems to have enjoyed
for perhaps fourteen years.

Giovanni Piranesi's collection contained
many items, the alleged origin of which
was Hadrian's Villa, and probably they
had actually come from the Villa, in
view of the fact that the elder Piranesi
had died just before Hamilton and Jenkins
began serious operations at Tivoli ; and
although one recalls the suspicion attached
to spoils from Hadrian's Villa, it must not
be forgotten that Giovanni Piranesi had
himself investigated and surveyed the
^ A sequin was worth about 9s.

i6o

Villa at about the time of Adam's visit
in 1757. With the collection were sent
to Stockholm two catalogues of the various
items it contained. They describe accu-
rately how the articles had passed into
Giovanni Piranesi's possession, and give the
names of their restorers, and state what
restorations had been carried out.

Continual streams of Art treasures from
Rome at length roused the Papal authorities
into action, and Clement xiv. and Pius vi.,
each in turn, placed legal restrictions against
the removal of masterpieces for the purpose
of sale and export. Papal funds, at this
juncture, were instrumental in founding the
Pio-Clementino Museum, and Clement xiv.
went so far as to appoint a competent
person, Visconti, to superintend all archaeo-
logical excavations within the limits of
Papal territory. Pius vi. took great interest
in archaeological research, assisting Francesco
Piranesi, who dedicated to him a series of
etchings of temples. The frontispiece of

i6i

the series bears the portrait of Pius vi.,
together with indications of that Pope
having been the restorer of the Appian
Way, and the benefactor of the Pio-
Clementino Museum.

Thus, the father having played his part
in kindling the antiquarian taste of Europe,
his son, Francesco Piranesi, completes the
work of assisting to bring the desire for
the possession of masterpieces to such a
pitch as to awake eventually a sense of
duty which compelled the Papal Govern-
ment to join in the search, and at the
same time to place itself at the head of
the investigations, with a view not only of
preventing dispersion beyond Italy, but of
filling the Pio-Clementino Museum.

After the assassination of Gustavus iii.,
Francesco Piranesi's position changed con-
siderably : he became a sort of Swedish
Consul. The Duke of Sudermania, Regent
for Gustavus Adolphus iv., desiring to rid

himself of a certain Count Gustav Armfelt^
II

l62

sent that nobleman on a mission to the
Italian Court. Lady Holland met him at
Florence, and speaks of him as " Armfelt
with the white handkerchief round his arm,
a pose which gained him considerable
female interest." Francesco attached him-
self officially to Armfelt. Although Sweden
had never varied in her chivalrous attach-
ment to the Bourbons, Armfelt was under
strict orders not to meddle with matters
connected with the French imigrds^ many
of whom had been his friends in earlier
days. These orders Armfelt disregarded.

Piranesi then played the spy on Armfelt,
writing frequent dispatches to the Govern-
ment at Stockholm on the condition of
affairs at Rome. This correspondence is
in the Royal Archives at Stockholm, and
it affords a peep, from an interesting angle,
into the history of what was alleged to be
going on in Rome during the period of the
French Revolution.

Francesco was not, it seems, a man

possessed of too acute a sense of honour,
and, although it cannot be proved positively
that such was really the case, I am inclined
to think that a considerable number of the
etchings bearing his name published by
him after his father's death were simply
etched by Francesco from carefully drawn
detailed plans made by his father. This
refers particularly to some of the Hercu-
laneum and Pantheon plates signed by
Francesco, and I am of the opinion that
he deliberately concealed the fact that he
owed anything, and perhaps everything,
in connection with those plates, to material
provided by his father. My view is more-
over strengthened by the fact that Tipaldo
does not regard the Theatre of Herculaneum
plates as other than the father's work — he
entirely ignores Francesco in relation to
them. He bases his opinions on those of
Bianconi, who was, as has been previously
stated, personally acquainted with Giovanni
Piranesi.

1 64

Having exhausted the possibilities of
the unworthy intrigues attached to his
office as spy, Francesco Piranesi sank
into depths of an even more unsavoury
nature, by acting as an official for the
administration of the finances of the Roman
Republic, after Rome had been occupied
by the French. Michaud is unsupported in
the statement that he was sent as Minister
to France. His friend Ennio Quirino
Visconti, however, had allowed himself to
be made a Consul when the Roman Re-
public was set up. When Napoleon
removed to France some of the finest
specimens of ancient Art, Visconti took
them to Paris, where he was employed as
Conservateur des Antiques, and in 1814
was among the first to detect the super-
lative merit of the Elgin marbles.

At length finding his own position un-
congenial, Francesco Piranesi, towards the
middle of 1798, packed up the copper
plates of his father's etchings and his

PLATE XXIII.

TRAJAN'S COLUMN AT ROME.

i65

working tools as a craftsman, and trans-
ferred his energies to Paris, going thither
by sea. During the voyage the ship fell
in with and was captured by a squadron
under Sir Thomas Troubridge, which had
become detached from Lord St. Vincent's
fleet. Nelson was then at Naples on the
Vanguard^ and British ships were actively
employed in that part of the Mediterranean
in blockading ports so as to prevent supplies
reaching the French troops. The captured
ship containing Piranesi's property was an
armed French brig laden for the most part
with spoil taken by the French from the
Italians. The name of Giovanni Piranesi
and the fame of his etchings were evidently
known to Admiral Troubridge, for he felt
respect for the etchings sufficient to cause
him to persuade the officers and men who
had effected the capture to restore the
copper plates to the son of the etcher. He
further obtained from the French Govern-
ment the concession that these plates should

i66

be admitted into France free of duty,
and that Francesco Piranesi should be pro-
tected in his future possession of them.
After Troubridge had succeeded in making
these arrangements, Francesco came on board
the Admiral's ship and received back his
property. At the same time he presented
to Troubridge a complete set of impressions.

This set of the etchings passed afterwards
through the hands of several other owners,
and eventually came into possession of
Alderman Josiah Boydell, Master of the
Stationers' Company, during the early years
of the nineteenth century ; Troubridge
having found these etchings scarcely suit-
able for the cabin of a sea captain had,
with the help of Tucker (Lord St. Vincent's
secretary), exchanged them for a library of
books more fitted for his purpose at sea, and
the books thus received by him in exchange
went down with him in the Blenheim,

At Paris, Francesco Piranesi devoted his
energies to making casts from the Antique,

i67

and to republishing his father's etchings,
together with those which he himself had
produced. He dedicated a portion of the
impressions forming the edition to his
patron Gustavus iii., and this is the French
edition of the etchings which is, as has
already been explained, vastly inferior to the
original Roman impressions.

It is to be regretted that Troubridge did
not throw the copper plates overboard ; it
would have spared Piranesi's reputation
from the violence that is still done to it
by the coarse and spoiled impressions that
were, from time to time, issued by any
enterprising person who cared to hire the
worn-out plates for a day's printing. Such
impressions grossly misrepresent Piranesi's
work. I believe these plates can still be
hired.

The French Government assisted Fran-
cesco, recognising that this publication
was likely to be of national benefit, as
indeed it was, though the benefit was not

i68

confined to France alone, because it caused
Piranesi's work to be distributed and placed
at the disposal of designers generally ; but,
none the less, Francesco achieved no financial
success, and notwithstanding his Swedish
annuity, some of his plates and moulds had
to go. He was probably not in comfort-
able circumstances at the time of his death
in January 1810, twelve years after leaving
Rome, but the world of to-day has the satis-
faction of knowing, now that the money is
useless to Piranesi and to his son Francesco,
that the public is willing to pay, for a pair
of original impressions of certain of the
father's etchings, as much as would have in
his lifetime maintained both these men
decently for perhaps a week.

It was Giovanni Piranesi who taught folks
the Poetry of Ruins. For centuries the
debris of Antique Art in Italy had lain half
submerged, dismissed from the care of man,
and abolished from their recollections. In
company with Winckelmann he helped to

169

drag them, as it were, to the light once
more, and he lent his needle to bring about
an extension of the knowledge of the
Beautiful to that heritage of Art which
the world owned, but had overlooked.
Folks awoke, recognised, admired, and won-
dered how blind they and their forefathers
had been, and proceeded to rediscover
architecture in Italy.

The time is now ripe to rediscover the
neglected Piranesi, and to give him credit
for what he really deserves. He bore the
brunt and he is entitled to some of the
praise. What Horace said of poets is
equally applicable to the case of etchers.
The whims of fashion and even taste
change so rapidly and unreasonably that
nothing short of real genius can survive.
But to-day, a century and a half after the
time when his best work appeared, it is
possible to adjudge Piranesi worthy of more
praise than was bestowed on him during his
lifetime ; while he lived his work had the

170

charm of novelty; that has long worn off,
and notwithstanding change of fashion, his
best work takes rank as Classic. In calcu-
lating the exact position of Giovanni
Piranesi as an artist, and in fixing his place
as an etcher, so much at least will be con-
ceded to him.

But it is unpardonable to make the
mistake of discussing him simply as an
artist and an etcher, as a turbulent, intolerant,
industrious, inspired producer of etchings of
which the best are of wonderful merit. One
may smile at his visions, his fancies ; one
may pour ridicule on his exaggerations, on
his untruthful renderings of his subjects ;
one can take account to their full of all
such abatements ; they were caused by
imagination, vivid enough, but they were
not of a kind that could mar his taste and
judgment.

It must be remembered that when
Piranesi dealt with a scene which was
familiar to him, and to his public, he

171

merely employed a rhetorical framework,
and he tried to drive home his lesson with
all the eloquence his needle possessed. He
tried to fascinate the eye and amuse the
mind, and with that intention permitted
himself to enliven the details by picturesque
draughtsmanship, embodying representations
which were sometimes untrue to the
original. Did not Livy threaten that he
would have made Pompey win the battle
of Pharsalia if the balance of the sentence
could have been improved by the change ?
Livy was not talking at random, he was
only teaching in a figurative but illustrative
manner the axiom that the paramount duty
of an artist is to be an artist — in other words,
the doctrine of Art for Art's sake. Voltaire,
too, gives permission : he says, " La grace
en s'exprimant vaut mieux que ce qu'on
dit.'' Piranesi's needle never dawdled and,
although from time to time it veered in
many directions, the Classic was always
North : he held to force and majesty with

172

evident pleasure, there was nothing weak in
his intentions ; like a famous Master of the
Rolls, " he might be right, he sometimes
was ; he might be wrong, that he was more
often ; but he never doubted." What the
etcher wanted to say, he said, and with a
Titanic boldness. Of points and of weakness
of another kind we can take full reckoning ;
certain strains in his character can be
remembered and passed over, for they have
no real bearing on a calculation made for
the purpose of arriving at a just appreciation
of Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

He began his artistic life at a period
when the soothing effect of restrained
statuary failed to obtain recognition, and
the most beautiful and dignified of ancient
monuments were regarded heedlessly, or
carelessly dismissed as " interesting old
ruins." He started by enabling, and ended
by compelling, the world to use the epic
grandeur of those monuments as ideals for
work, that was, in course of time, to adorn

173

the avenues and thoroughfares of the
capitals of the civilised world. His spirit
moved happily through life so long as it
could hold communion with the friends he
loved, the ancient monuments ; he dreamed
of them, he discussed them, he exhibited
their beauties to the world in flashes of
wonderful light. He said what he had to
say, he repeated it, and then, for fear that
his point had not been understood, proceeded
to illustrate his views in a contradictory
manner. And so we have the enormous
number of plates, gems of etching, it is true,
but perhaps too many of them, too many
suns in Piranesi's firmament, till we become
confused and begin to doubt, as did Cowley,
whether the Milky Way is composed of
stars, there are so many of them.

" Men doubt, because they stand so thick i' th' sky,
If those be stars, which paint the galaxy."^

He regarded the gratification of the

1 Cowley, Ode to Wit,

174

aesthetic sense as one of the principal
functions of his own existence, and, de-
siring lofty emotions, turned in his search
for them to noble sources. Thus it was
that he loved noble effect, and one of the
results of his work is the delight experi-
enced nowadays by people who never
suspect that it is partly due to him that
they owe the opportunity of taking their
pleasure in aesthetic ornament. Around
his work is the indescribable air of intimate
friendship with the Antique ; he found it
more difficult to be a modern than an
ancient, and the result is that there was
produced a style peculiar to Piranesi, a
style which is at once decorative and
classically pure, and no less graceful than
it is ingenious ; he approached his subject
with knowledge, and distilled abundant
treasure which he encased in honest dignity
and adapted to modern usefulness.

The public and private architecture of
recent times has tended towards the Classic

175

and early Renaissance styles ; to the draughts-
man engaged in such work, Piranesi's plates,
especially those which contain ornamental
details, with their simple restrained mould-
ings, their restful but interesting friezes,
details condensed by the etcher into an
essence of good taste, are as salt for the
flavouring of food. The modern draughts-
man can extract his grains of salt from
Piranesi, and everything upon which they
are sprinkled acquires an improved savour
and becomes more interesting.

From these etchings of ornamental work
innumerable ideas may be taken for the
interior decoration of buildings. Furniture,
walls, ceilings, friezes, fireplaces, and what
not, all levy contribution on Piranesi.

Whether, in the long run. Art really
profits by such a storehouse, is questionable.
Does the schoolboy profit by a crib ?

Such a crib certainly spares the modern
designer much labour, — he can borrow what-
ever he may lack, — but it enervates : by

176

enabling the draughtsman to give forth
ideas without effort of thought, it removes
the stimulant which begets originality. It
of course helps the designer to produce
work which will not render him ridiculous, —
he may indeed attain mediocrity, he will be
safe from blame, — but the result will not be
sufficient to earn him much praise. In un-
skilful hands, too, purple patches are the
result. Still, as a rule, apart from the
question of originality, Piranesi's help has
usually so successful an effect that we can
afford to overlook the work in which
Piranesi is ill-treated. And besides, few
minds are capable of originality : the ability
to originate a design which is interesting is
even more rarely met with, and how seldom
is given that power to produce a scheme
not only original but interesting, which is
allied with the ability to express it delicately
and to practical purpose.

Is it not, therefore, preferable, on the
whole, that the would-be designer should

177

content himself with borrowing, and even
mangling, an idea taken from Piranesi's
records, than that he should be compelled to
strive for the originality which, in many-
cases, gives birth to the abortions that from
time to time horrify the eye and delight the
popular press ?

The science of Hypothetics is not a fruit-
ful one ; but people have often amused
themselves by speculating on the probable
consequence of events which have not
happened, or in imagining events to have
happened in a manner different from that
which has been actually the case. They
will draw deductions from the imaginary
premise that Eude's daughter had not
married the Emir, or that Livy's hypo-
thetical invasion of Italy by Alexander had
actually taken place. In a similar way a
student of Art might fashion a nightmare
by imagining the appearance of the interiors
of most British homes to-day had Giovanni
Piranesi's birth and work been deferred fifty

178

years. Piranesi was one of those fortunate
men who have appeared at the juncture
when their skill and individuality afford the
greatest service. The date at which his
peculiar abilities became available caused the
production of his etchings to affect vitally,
not only Chambers, but Chippendale, Adam,
Sheraton, and many other of the English
furniture designers.

From the middle of the eighteenth century
till now, although there have been, in that
time, periods during which spurious sensi-
bility, expressed by architecture in particular
and by form in general, has self-consciously
thrust itself forward only to be betrayed by
its awkwardness and vulgarity, design influ-
enced by Piranesi as applied to the treat-
ment of English buildings, public no less
than private, has undergone a change, the
effect of which can be seen on all sides, to
be remarked with increasing distinctness in
buildings of recent date. It must, however,
be borne in mind that, although following

179

the usual custom Piranesi called himself
an architect, he knew little of construction
or calculation, and less of the methods
of carrying actual work into execution.
The making of working plans was out
of his province, and he rarely addressed
himself to that portion of the architect's
profession. Execution with the needle he
excelled in, but his genius was for design.
An absence of prettiness from most of his
work indicates the prevailing emotions that
governed his technique. The austerity of
his taste tells its tale of profound passion and
of the man struggling with the problem of
personal existence. Towards the close of
his life, when he had won through the
struggle, prosperity of sorts, bringing with
it a desire to please, weakened a high-strung
energy, and he indulged a hitherto sup-
pressed quality of prettiness ; yet even then,
whenever he was etching in a fortunate
moment, prettiness rose to beauty itself.
Piranesi's etchings are the sole records of

i8o

his character, and are all that exists to indi-
cate his qualities. By them his life may be
analysed. They show that he possessed
ability of a first-class order, and taste of the
purest kind entirely devoid of pettiness ; his
work is marked with poetry and dignified
sentiment, sensuality is entirely absent from
it. From his etchings we can also see we
have to deal with a man of nimble brain,
quick to make a statement, intolerant of
the views of others, morbidly sensitive to
criticism, ready to elevate his personal
opinion into a dogma, garrulous in his
work, the victim of a temperament mainly
composed of exaltation and depression. In
his treatise on the Laocoon Lessing contrasts
the stoical demeanour of Northern peoples
with the exuberance of feeling common
among the Greeks and Romans. Philoctetes
shrieks with the smart of his wound, and
Achilles rolls in the sand overcome with
grief. There was in Piranesi that same
lack of self-restraint which has descended to

i8i

the modern inhabitants of Southern Europe.
Extravagances in style, extravagances in
ideas, can be detected in much of his work,
but with the exception of the chimney-
pieces not extravagances in taste. The judg-
ment of taste, which is supposed to come
late to servants at the altar of Literature, was
mature at an early stage in Piranesi's life.

It is too often forgotten that in Art
everything depends upon the taste of the
craftsman. To him taste is more vital than
ability and industry. Should the cunning
worker, though master of the technical
portion of his art, be lacking in taste, he is
a failure as an artist. Try Piranesi's etch-
ings on the touchstone of taste, and the
mark left shows no base alloy. Had he not
possessed that supreme quality, one shudders
to think how mischievous would have been
Piranesi's work and teaching, and how
deplorable would have been his influence
had his dexterous needle been wielded to
express vulgar ideals. His industry could

l82

not be excelled, and his craftsmanship was
assisted by the strength of conviction that
he had a mission. Skill could have gone
no farther.

He summed up the results of the etcher's
craft and carried them to a point beyond
which they have not been improved. The
enthusiasm he felt for what he saw and
what he imagined took the form of an ex-
altation of happiness ; he was ravished with
the calm beauty with which his perceptions
were illuminated. The delight he took in
his work was moreover animated by a con-
scientiousness, marked with a deep and
genuine contempt for those who dared to
question the supreme excellence of the
Roman architecture which provided sub-
jects for his pencil.

A sense of humour was wanting in
Piranesi's equipment, though the incongru-
ous appealed to him. Of subtlety he had
none : the natural, " the exquisite natural,''
as Joubert defines it, was his weapon. If

i83

he departed from the natural, it was for
the purpose of pleasing and explaining,
and when simplicity alone would not be
beautiful. He made no attempt to hide
the departure ; he, like Joubert, " merely
passed through the clouds in order to mount
the skies/' Endowed with strong views,
great bodily energy, eager to produce the
best in his power, he never paused to con-
sider his personal dignity when doing what
he thought was right. It was against his
nature to attempt to lead, his method was
to impose. Neither did he fear to run the
risk of appearing ridiculous by that readiness
for disputation which, under other or
ordinary circumstances, would have been
scarcely excusable. But, in a state of affairs
where it was necessary to make a stir in order
to gain attention to the subject in which he,
almost single-handed, had taken the initia-
tive, the quarrels of the argumentative
Piranesi must not be made to count for too
much in an estimate of the character of the

184

man. They are understandable, and perhaps
pardonable. He merely perceived instinct-
ively that unless opinions are set forth in
an offensive manner the indolent world
usually fails to notice them, and he acted on
the theory that people would not bother
themselves about a subject unless he began
by making it bother them.

Architectural etching has culminated
with him. His successors are all able to
reproduce in a way, and more or less, his
characteristics. They have, up to the
present, however, suggested no improvement
or further development of the art as he
left it.

The massive simplicity conveyed by his
work, his peculiar power of expressing
with directness the salient points of his
subject, render plain to the student that
Nobleness which it was the etcher's aim to
reproduce.

His genius stamped the art of etching
with a distinction which etching, as an

i85

Art in connection with Architecture, had
never possessed before. An impetuous
enthusiasm thus equipped endowed his
work with an eloquence which prompts a
feeling that it was an inspired hand that
guided his needle.

Piranesi's work conveys the same im-
pression to the eye the least acquainted
with fine architecture as to the mind filled
with practical knowledge of technical Art.
To each, the impression is of a beautiful
subject, composed with perfect taste, and
represented in such a manner that it is of
the highest interest. So fine is the etching
that the needle seems to have worked with-
out effort. Indeed it is so, for Piranesi's
work was the reflex of his feelings — his
hand was almost unconscious of what it
did. The result, so far as opportunity
afforded, was that the gift of consummate
skill given him by Nature was exercised in
its utmost capacity. And notwithstanding
all this, Piranesi never had his fair chance

1 86

of showing his highest and unfettered
ability.

It remains only to wonder whether the
early struggle for a livelihood through
which he worked, whether the restrictions
imposed by the lack of adequate means in
the first years of his married life, acted as
a clog upon Piranesi.

Would fuller power and opportunity to
spread his wings, and to give free play
to his imagination and skill, have enabled
him to realise himself in some permanent
masterpiece of architecture ? With oppor-
tunity and encouragement could he, under
improved circumstances, have put forth
ideas which, when turned into stone and
metal, would have produced a result such
as would have made his reputation more
widely known and more lasting ?

The same thought and some remorse
are experienced in regarding the lives of
other men who were almost his contem-
poraries. We, for example, recall Burns, a

18;

pauper but for Lord Dundas's ^70 a year ;
then Beethoven. Porson might have pro-
duced we know not what, had he been
encouraged and relieved ; though he now
lies at the foot of Newton's statue, he was,
during his lifetime, and while at work,
driven to fall back on an income of under
jTa a week, contributed by friends as a
protest against the treatment he had received
from other quarters. Then there is Field-
ing denied help to the extent that a
pawnable coat was his best friend. And
Thackeray said that Fielding's name has
been written, as it were, on the dome
of St. Peter's, for Gibbon declared that
" the romance of Tom Jones^ that ex-
quisite picture of human manners, will
outlive the palace of the Escurial and the
imperial eagle of the House of Austria."
Johnson received a pension from Bute, it is
true, but though it saved him from writs it
came twenty-five years too late to be really
effective, and it is well to recall that Johnson

i88

had been enjoying the assistance of the
pension ahxady for seventeen years before his
best work, The Lives of the Poets ^ appeared ;
and it was only his own undaunted courage
and perseverance which had till then en-
abled him to maintain himself, pursue his
labours, and produce fine work at a wage
less affluent than a fish-hawker could have
earned. If it be argued that all master-
pieces have been born in poverty there are
Dante, Chaucer, Michelangelo, Tintoret,
Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, and Goethe,
to prove the contrary. Nor have many
masterpieces been produced by men of great
wealth ; for riches enervate as much as ex-
treme poverty paralyses. Difficulties form
the finest stone out of which character may
be hewn and penury goes far to spur a man.
But penury damps his spirit by clogging
his powers, and the energy and force of
character sufficient to assist a man to win
that position wherein he may be able to
realise himself are not always those qualities

i89

which are the companions of genius. The
kindly hand, therefore, which will ward
off grinding want is the good fortune
we should desire for the development of
genius.

When we look over the roll of the
splendid company of men whose wants and
distresses might have been lessened and
whose opportunities might have been in-
creased, we wonder what greater monu-
ments of their genius might have been
added to the adornment of Literature and
Art had we but appreciated their work
in time, and had we been ready to afford
them the means and occasion to produce
that which they knew was within them.

Surely there must be good reason for
suspecting that something is continually
being lost to us by our inopportune callous-
ness and blindness. Do we not often regret
that genius is recognised only when it is
too late for friendly help to be of avail ?
But will the world take a lesson ? Has

190

it a memory ? Can it learn to recognise
the sparkle of a gem before it has been
appraised in the money market ? Why
should the word " modern '* act as a curse
upon fine work ? and why should the word
" genius '* be interpreted as " the skill
of dead men " ? The skill of the dead
receives the high monetary quotation, and
it is the traffic in it which discourages
the advancement of Art.

Brave men there were before Aga-
memnon's day, and there were also brave
men after him. So with Art. Genius has
lived in days gone, it will live again, and
indeed it is always with us. And when
to-morrow perhaps a man of genius tries
to struggle to the light, will the world
detect the sparkle and remember its regret,
that in similar cases in the past help had
not been given ? Will it take genius, while
still alive, by the hand ? or will it stupidly
miss its chance once more, and wait a
generation, till fashion has created recogni-

191

tion, and until a dead craftsman's work
has at last attained commercial worth,
based on its own excellence, or has become
popular as a gambling counter ? And a
gambling counter it often is, for fewer
works of Art are eagerly sought for by
the collector on the ground of merit than
are bought in semi-conscious hope or ex-
pectation that they may eventually prove
a satisfactory speculation. _ And will the
world never see that the masterpieces of
the past, now possessing an enhanced
value, due solely to their greater or less
age, were once entitled to the description
which blights the work of living men,
"modern"?

To all this, any craftsman at any time
will always make the same reply. It will
always be the same, notwithstanding all
that has been, and will be said. The
Beautiful is a sealed book to most, and
those who can read at all are too few and
too weak to make their voices heard.

192

Their efforts are almost entirely ineffectual,
and especially when confronted with the
chatter of fashion or false sentimentality,
and they resign themselves to the inevitable
without vexation, and acquiesce in a con-
dition of things which has existed so long
that it apparently cannot be remedied.

Schopenhauer understood the position
when he reminded us that the wise men
of all times said the same, and the fools —
that is, the immense majority of all times
— have always done the same — that is to say,
the opposite of what the wise have said.
Consequently, to be vexed with human
stupidity, and to expect less perversity in
the recognition, at the critical moment,
of the Beautiful in Art, is, in itself, an
extreme form of stupidity. The lesson that
has to be accepted is, that it is hopeless to
expect that real merit will ever receive,
when it needs it, that to which it is en-
titled, and that genius, while assistance is
of value, will be helped to reach the point

193

which genius unassisted could not attain.
Those who possess power to render that
assistance have as a rule so little of the
correct critical faculty that they are driven
to make market price the basis of their
taste and admiration. The higher the
quotation the more eager is their desire
to shower gold. The existing and veritable
work of a dead man does not increase, its
price therefore rises with demand. The
attention attracted by price to the work
of the dead masters, fine though it may be,
and that is not disputed, does harm to Art,
and to living men, who may even in turn
become old masters ; for it indirectly pours
contempt on living men, discourages their
efforts, and stamps their genius as being
incapable of producing work to reach that
standard which is the measure of the
Beautiful and the True.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

In addition to the standard Works of reference,
Encyclopaedias, Dictionaries, and Biographies, the
following authorities have been consulted : —

Architectural Publication Society's Diction-
ary, 1853-92.

Armstrong, Sir Walter, Art in Great Britain
and Scotland, 1909.

Arnold's Library of the Fine Arts, 1831.

Biagi, Pietro, Sull' incisione e suF Piranesi,
1820.

Bianconi, Giovanni Lodovico : Opere, 1802.

Birrell, Augustine, Res Judicat^e.

Blomfield, Prof. Reginald, Studies in Archi-
tecture, 1905.

Brush and Painter, vol. x., Woodworth's
article on Piranesi.

Chambers, Sir William, Treatise on Civil
Architecture, 1825.

Charteris, Hon. Evan Edward, A Short Ac-
count of the Affairs of Scotland, 1745-6.

194

195

Corbeille, L. A., articles in "The Dome,"
January 1898, January 1899.

Dallaway, J., Anecdotes of the Arts of Eng-
land, 1800.

Draper, Prof., The Conflict between Religion
and Science.

Escott, T. H. S., article in Belgravia Maga-
zine, 1869.

Geffroy, A., Papiers inedits de F. Piranesi a
I'archive royale au musee et a la biblio-
theque de Stockholm.

Gerard, Frances, Angelica KauiFmann.

Gori, Gandellini, Notizie istoriche degli in-
tagliatori, 18 14.

Hardy, Francis, Memoirs of the Political and
Private Life of J. Caulfield, Earl of Charle-
mont, 1 8 10.

Hind, A. W., A Short History of Engraving
and Etching, 1908.

Larousse, Encyclopaedie, 1874.

Macmillan's Magazine, vol. Ixii.

Macquoid, Percy, A History of English

Furniture, 1904-8.
Marot, David, (Euvres d'ornement, 1650--

1712.

196

Michaud, Biographic Universelle, vol. xxxiii.
Monnier, Philippe, Venice in the Eighteenth
Century.

Nagler, Kiinstler-Lexikon, 1841.

Piranesi, Francesco, Lettera . . . al Signor
Generale Giovanni Acton (relating to his
dealings with the Swedish Envoy at Naples,
G. M. von Armfelt).

Piranesi, G. B., Letter to Lord Charlemont in
Le Antichita Romane.

Piranesi, Les CEuvres des Chevaliers Jean
Baptiste et Frangois Piranesi, 1792.

Piranesi, Calcographie des Piranesi Freres.
(Euvres de Jean Baptiste et de Frangois
Piranesi qui se vendent chez les Auteurs,
a Paris, rue de T University, D^pot des
Machines, No. 296. An VIIL de la
Republique (1801).

Piranesi's engraved Catalogue, 1761.

Repository of Arts, 1 8 1 2.

Sandys, J. E., History of Classical Scholar-
ship, 1903.

Smith, J. T., Nollekens and his Times.

Sturgis, Russell, The Etchings of Piranesi,
1900.

Sturgis, Russell, Dictionary of Architecture,
1902.

Swarbrick, John, Life, Work, and Influence of
Robert Adam and his Brothers.

197

Tipaldo, Emilio di, Biografia degli Italian!

illustri, Venice, 1834-35.
Ticozzi, S., Dizionario degli Architetti, 1832.

Varietes Litteraires, Paris, 1804, containing

Mariette's letter.
Venuti (Ridolfino), Accurata e succinta des-

crizione topografica e istorica di Roma

moderna, 2 vols. 4to, 1766.

Walpole, Horace, Anecdotes of Painting in
England.

Young, William, Roman Architecture, Sculp-
ture, and Ornament.

THE ETCHINGS OF PIRANESI

It is not intended to give a collation of the
reprints issued in Paris, as they are unsatisfactory
from a collector's point of view.

As far as possible the notes are arranged in
the order of date of the publication of the earliest
complete editions.

Except where otherwise stated the plates are
engraved by G. B. Piranesi.

Antichita Romane de' Tempi della Repubblica

e de' primi Imperatori, etc. (Archi Trion-

fali Antichi, Templi, etc.). Rome, 1748.

I title, I dedication, 2 inscriptions, and 29

plates. A title to the second part* follows

plate 1 5, and is not numbered.

A reprint of the plates in the above

appeared under the following title : —

Alcune Vedute di Archi Trionfali ed altri

Monumenti inalzati da Romani parte de

198

199

quali si veggono in Roma e parte per
ritalia. Rome, 1748.

This has two extra plates, one at the

commencement and one at the end. The

first is presumably by Francesco, and

the last is signed by him. The border

to the title is the same, but the borders to

the dedication and two inscriptions in the

"Antichita" have been omitted in the

" Alcune Vedute."

Opere Varie di Architettura Prospettive

Grotteschi Antichita sul gusto degli Antichi

Romani. Rome, Bouchard, 1750.

The second plate forms another title.
Prima Parte di Architettura e Prospettive.
This work sometimes has the portrait of
Piranesi by E. Polanzani, "faciebat 1750."
As mentioned on p. 16, four of the
plates of this work were published separ-
ately about 1741, and are the earliest
published plates of Piranesi.
Le Carceri d'Invenzione.

14 plates. Rome, Bouchard, 1750.
16 plates. Rome, 1750.

As mentioned on p. 109, the 14 plates
show that they were considerably worked
upon before being re-issued as part of
the 16.

200

Piranesi's letterpress catalogue says,
"planches faites, 1742." [See Biblio-
graphy, p. 196.]
Vedute di Roma. 2 vols.

Vol. 1. Map, title, and 69 plates.
Vol. II. 68 plates, with allegorical plate
usually inserted as title.

The Soane Museum copy has 2 interiors
of St. Peter's engraved by Francesco which
are not part of the "Vedute."

In 1 75 1, 34 plates and the engraved
"Vedute" title-page were published by
Bouchard with the title " Le Magnific-
enze di Roma le piu remarcabili." This
contains the allegorical plate described
above.

Piranesi's first engraved catalogue in the
possession of the publisher, and reproduced
in this work (see Plate 3), gives an en-
graved list of 60 plates, with further lines
giving the names of 3 more in manuscript
(presumably in Piranesi's own handwrit-
ing), and bears date May 1761.
Raccolta di Varie Vedute. Rome, Bouchard,
1752.

93 small views on 46 plates (one being on
the letterpress title).

Only 47 of these views are by Piranesi.

20I

Trofei di Ottaviano Augusto con vari altri
Ornamenti Antichi. Rome, Bouchard, 1753.
Letterpress title with small engraving and
9 plates.

1758. Engraved title (including small
engraving as above) and 15 plates.

In the second edition the new plates are
numbered 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9.
Le Antichita Romane. 4 vols.

1756. 216 plates = vol. i. 43; ii. 6^ ;
ii. 54 ; iv. 56.

1786. 218 plates = vol. i. 44; ii. 6^ ;
iii. 54 ; iv. 57.

The 1758 edition is often quoted as
having 224 plates, this being due to the
addition of the six " Monumenti degli
Scipioni " in some copies.

The earlier copies of the four volumes
issued in 1756 contained dedications to
"Jacopo Caulfield Vicecomiti Charlemont.''
But for the reasons explained on p. 76 et seq.
his name was suppressed in favour of that
of Robert Adam. Thus copies containing
the dedication to Lord Charlemont are rare.
The second edition, issued by Francesco
in 1786 after his father's death, has dedi-
cations to Gustavus III. of Sweden.

The first edition contains the portrait

202

of Piranesi by Polanzani, but in the
second this is replaced by that by Guisseppe
Cades, reproduced as a frontispiece to this
volume.
Camere Sepolchrae degli Antichi Romani.
Engraved title and 13 plates.

This work was formed from a collection
of plates out of the second and third
volumes of the "Antichita Romane," the
descriptions on some of the plates having
been slightly altered.
Lettere di Giustificazione scritte a Milord

Charlemont. 1757. 8 plates.
De Romanorum Magnificentia et Architec-
tura. (Delia Magnificenza ed Architettura
de' Romani.) Rome, 1760.

Latin title, Italian title, portrait of Clement
XIII., plates i. to xxxviii. Four of these
(namely, xvii., xviii., xix., and xxx.) are
ordinary plates joined together, making 4.
Le Rovine del Castello deU'Acqua Giulia.
Rome, 1 76 1.

Engraved title and 19 plates.

It is often difficult to make the colla-
tions agree ; in this case, for example, the
copies at the British and Soane Museums
have title and 19 plates, but the engraved
catalogue of Piranesi's works issued by

203

himself says 21 plates and the catalogue
of his sons, dated 1792, says 20.
Antichita de Cora. Rome, 1762.

Engraved title, one plate unnumbered, and
plates i. to x. (plate i being two sheets joined
together).
Campus Martius Antiquae Urbis. (II Campo
Marzio delFAntica Roma.) Rome, 1762.

Latin title, Italian title, and 48 plates.
Of these plates Nos. ii. and xxxi. are formed
by 2 plates being pasted together, and plates
V. to X., dedicated to Robert Adam, when
joined together form one large plan of the
Campus Martius.
Lapides Capitolini sive Fasti Consulares
Triumphalesque Romanorum. Rome, 1762.
Engraved title, dedication to Clement xiii.,
and 3 plates.
Antichita d'Albano c di Castel Gandolfo.
Rome, 1764.

Engraved title, dedication to Clement xiii.
and plates i. to xxvi.
Descrizione e disegno dell' Emissario del Lago
Albano.

Engraved title and plates i. to ix., plate iii.
being two plates joined together.
Di Due Spelonche ornati dagli Antichi alia
Riva del Lago Albano.

204

Letterpress title with small engraving, and
plates i. to xii., plate viii. being two plates
joined together.
Osservazioni di G. B. Piranesi sopra la
Lettre de M. Mariette aux auteurs de la
Gazette IJtt<§raire de I'Europe. Rome,
1764.

Engraved title and plates i. to ix.

This is usually found bound at the end
of "De Romanorum Magnificentia et
Architectura."
Parere su I'Architettura. No plates.

This is often mentioned as being a

separate work by Piranesi, but it is actually

part of the above, the pages being numbered

consecutively.

Delia Introduzione e del progresso delle belle

Arti in Europa ne' Tempi Antichi. Rome,

1765. 3 plates.

The note about the Parere again applies
in this case, the pages numbering on from
those of the Parere.
A View of Part of the Intended Bridge at
Blackfriars, London, in August 1764, by
Robert Mylne, architect, engraved by G. B.
Piranesi at Rome.
The last plate, an Allegorical Composition en-
graved by Charpentier, of the French edition

205

of Jacques Barozzio de Vignole, published in
1767. A rare volume with beautiful plates
of Decoration, usually known as Blondel's
Edition.
A View of St. Peter's, Rome, engraved by
Charpentier, is also to be found in this
edition of Jacques Barozzio de Vignole,

^1767.
Diverse Maniere d'Adornare i Cammini ed

ogni altra parte degli edifizi, desunte delF
Architettura Egizia e Etrusca, Greca, e
Romana. Rome, 1769.
Frontispiece and 69 plates.

The text is in Italian, English and
French.
Colonna di Trajano. Rome, 1776.

21 plates.
Colonna Antonina. Undated.

5 plates.
Colonna delF Apoteosi di Antonino Pio. Un-
dated. 5 plates.
Vasi Candelabri Cippi Sarcofagi Tripodi
Lucerne ed ornamenti Antichi. Rome, 1778.
1 1 2 plates.
Differentes vues de quelques restes des trois
Grandes Edifices de Pesto dans la Lucanie.

Engraved title and 20 plates. 3 of these
plates are signed, " Francesco Piranesi "; the

2o6

remaining 1 7 are signed, Cav. Piranesi. This
presumably means that these 17 plates were
drawn and engraved by the son, but the
author's views appear on p. 163.
Teatro di Ercolano. Rome, 1783.

Engraved title and 9 plates. [Francesco
Tiranesi.)
Monumenti degli Scipioni. Rome, 1785.

6 plates. {Francesco Tiranesi.)
Raccolta de' Tempi Antichi (Sciographia
Quatuor Templorum Veterum.) Prima Parte
che comprehende i tempi di Vesta-madre
ossia della Terra della Sibilla, e dell'onore
e delle Vertu. Rome, 1776.

Engraved title and 22 plates. {Francesco
Tiranesi.)
Seconda Parte de' Tempi Antichi che contiene
il celebre Panteon. Rome, 1 790.

Letterpress title with small engraving and
29 plates. {Francesco Tiranesi.)

In many copies plates i., vii. to ix., and
xxix. are wanting, presumably due to
these not having been issued in the
earlier copies.
Statue Antiche.

41 plates. {Francesco Tiranesi.)

Piranesi's letterpress catalogue (see
Bibliography, p. 196) gives a list of

207

52 plates, but only 32 are marked with an
asterisk as having then appeared. Prob-
ably therefore the 1 1 plates in addition
to the 41 mentioned above were never
published. The engraving of Angelini's
statue of G. B. Piranesi is found in this
work. (Francesco Piranesi.)
Varie tabulae celeberrimorum Pictorum Rac-
colta di Alcuni Disegni del Barbed da
Cento detto il Guercino incisi in rame e
presentati al Sig. T. Jenkins dall' Architetto.
G. B. Piranesi.

With 2 plates engraved by Francesco and
dedicated to his father, "Apud Equitem
Johannem Baptistem Piranesi."
Antiquites de la Grande Grece aujourd'hui
Royaume de Naples . . . gravees. par F.
Piranesi d'apres les dessins du pere, J. B.
Piranesi. Paris, 1804-7.
105 plates. 3 vols.
In the letterpress catalogue issued in 1801
the following are quoted as being "DifFerentes
vues dessinnees par Despres et gravees, par
Frangois Piranesi " : —

Illumination de la Croix de S. Pierre le jeudi

et le vendredi saints, vue d'en haut.
Chapelle Pauline illuminee.
Chateau S. Ange au moment que Ton tire

208

le feu d'artifice dit la Girandola vu d'en
haut.

Grotte de Posilippe, vue d'en haut, d'un efFet
merveiileux.

Plan general de la Villa de Pompeia, Temple
d'Isis vu de face. 1788.

Entree de la Porte de la Ville.

Tombeau de Mammia.

Cloitre des Chartreux dans les Thermes de
Diocletien avec la vue au meillieu du grouppe
des quatre Cipres au clair de lune, peint par
Frangois Sablet, et grave par Francois.
(Piranesi.)

Deux Bacchantes trouvees dans les ruines de
la Ville de Pompeia. On les voit dans le
Musee Royal k Portico.

Dimentions geometriques du plan et eleva-
tion de Temissaire du Lac Fucino, acheve
par TEmpereur Claude. Dessine par J.
Baptiste et acheve par Frangois. En 2
feuilles.
6 plates.

Plan de la Villa Adrienne, ou d'on voit les
ruines des Edifices que TEmpereur avait
construits dans le style des batimens les plus
remarquables de la Grece et d'Egypte.
En 6 feuilles.
3 plates.

209

Vue de la Grande Place de Padoue. En

3 feuilles.
Plan du Palais de Sans Souci.
Cinq difFerentes Bordures pour ornament des

estampes.
Plan du Cirque de Caracalla. En 2 feuilles.

The following are included in the catalogue
issued in 1792 as being in preparation ("qu'on
grave actuellement "), but there is no evidence
that they ever appeared : —

Statues des plus celebres Sculptures de nos

jours.
Choix des Meilleures Bas-Reliefs, Antiques

en — planches.
Vues des Maisons de Campagne ou Villes de
Rome, de Frascati, de Tivoli.

INDEX

Academy, Royal, 49.

Achilles, 180.

Adam, Robert, 44, 45, 47, 49,

55, 57, 59, 67, 69,88, 123,

178.
Addison, 100.
^.milia. Basilica, 10.
Alberico, The Vision of, 18.
Albrizzi, 140.
America, classic form of

Architecture popular in,

132, 133-
Ancona, 17.
Angelini, 33, 127.
Antiquaries, Society of, 49,

70.
Antologia Romana, 23.
Antonini, 15.

Antoninus, Pius, Villa of, 153.
Appian Way, 152.
Arcadi, Academy of, in.
Arch, early examples of the,

II.
Armfelt, Count Gustav, 161.
Augustus of Saxony, 1 56.
Aylesford, Earl of, 124.

Bacon, 51.

Bank of England, 122.

Banks, 52.

Barbault, Jean, 30.

Baroc, 53, 105.

Bartolozzi, 47, 66.

Batsford, Herbert, no.

Beauclerk, Aubrey, 91.

Beckford, W., 91, 138.

Bellotto, 136.

Benedict xiv., Pope, 17, 20.

Bentley, 126.

Berain, 105.

Bernini, 118.

Biagi, 6.

Bianconi, 23, 34, 157, 163.

Blackfriars Bridge, 113.

Blomfield, Professor, in.

Boswell, 87.

Bottari, 17, 23, 35, 75-

Bouchard, 17, 40, 74, 75,

III.
Bourbon, Constable of, 27.
Boydell, 166.
Boyle, 51.
Brandt, 48.

211

British Museum, 29, 40, 124,

125, 145, 149.^
Buonamini, Antonio, 31.
Burghley House, 67.
Burke, 87.
Burns, Robert, 186.
Bute, Lord, 187.

Cades, Guisseppe, 32.

Cagnolo, Monte, 153.

Callot, 21.

Campagna, 4, 27.

Canaletto, 136.

Canova, 34.

Capitol, 27.

Carmarthen, Lord, 91.

Casanova, 137, 140.

Catherine 11., 156.

Caulfield, James, 76. See

Charlemont.
Cellini, Benvenuto, 6, 37.
Ceracchi, 48.
Ceulen, Janssen Van, 53.
Chambers, Sir William, 46, 59,

76, 88, 178.
Charlemont, Earl of, 76, 78, 88.
Chaucer, 188.
Chigi, Cardinal, 152.
Chippendale, Thomas, 59, 60,

61,71, 75, 178.
Choupy, Martin, 1 16.
Cibber, Colley, 54.
Cipriani, 48.

Clement xill., Pope, 35, 96.
Clement xiv., Pope, 145, 160.
Clerisseau, 46, 47, 88, 123.
Cloaca, Rome, 11.

Clouston, R. S., 7I5 75-
Codrus and the Centaur, 20.
Coke, Thos., 144.
Coleridge, 104.
Colosseum, 4, 27, 148.
Conservatori, Palace of the.

34.
Contucci, 23.
Cooper, 53.

Corraghi, Francesca, 2.
Corsini, Prince, 36.
Cotman, J. S., 56.
Cowley, loi, 172.
Crome, 56.
Crotona, 15.
Curia Hostilia, 10.
Curia Julia, 10.
Curzon, Penn Assheton, 91.

Dallaway, 149.

Dalmatia, 46, 49, 90.

Dance, in, 121.

Dante, 18, 188.

Derby, Lord, 49.

Didot, Firmin, 98.

Dilettanti Society, 76.

Diocletian, Palace of, 47, 90.

D'Israeli, Isaac, 18.

Dore, Gustave, 114.

Doria Pamphili, Palazza, 17.

Doric temples and cities, 15,

129.
Dundas, 60, 68, 187.

Egremont, Lord, 144.
Elgin Marbles, 152.

212

Escurial, 187.

d'Este Alessandro, 34.

„ Villa, 5, 148.
Etruscan Architecture, 8, 14,

15, 129.
Exeter, Marquis of, 91.

Ferdinand iv. of Naples, 156.
Fielding, Henry, 187.
Flaxman, John, R.A., 31, 52,

126.
Forum, Rome, 26, 36.

Gallienus, Villa of, 152.
Gellee, 4.
Geoffroy, 147.
Gibbon, 88, 137, 187.
Gibbons, Grinling, 53.
Goday, Don M. de, 126.
Goethe, 5,47, 78,95, 138, 142,

151, 188.
Goldoni, 37.
Goths, 27.
Grasme, 90.
Grattan, Henry, 76.
Grenville, George, 91.
Guardi, 136.
Guiscard, 27.
Gustavus III,, of Sweden, 13,

I39> 156, 157, 167.
Gustavus Adophus ix., 161.

Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli, 13,

14, 66, 149.
H alley, 51.

Hamilton, Lady Betty, 49.
Hamilton, Gavin, 91, 146, 151,

156.
Hampton Court, 106.
Herculaneum, 12, 163.
Hare wood. Lord, 'Ji-
Hind, A. M., 56.
Hogarth, 52.
Holbein, 51, 53.
Holland, Lady, 162.
Hope, Henry, 91.
Hope, W. H. St. John, 70.
Horace, 18, 169.

Istria, Pola in, 17.

Jenkins, Thos., 91, 145,146,156.
Johnson, Dr., 76, 87, 187.
Jonson, Cornelius, 53.
Joseph II., Emperor, 139.
Joubert, 182.
Juvenal, 20.

Kauffmann, Angelica, 47, 48.
Kneller, 53.
Knight, Payne, 152.

Laguerre, 53.
Lanciani, Professor, 34.
Lansdowne House, 145, 150,

152.
Laocoon, 180,
Lely, 53.
Lepautre, 105.

213

Lessing, 142, 180.
Lincoln, Lord, 91, 144.
Livy, 171, 177-
Lock, 59.
Lockhart, i.
Locri, 15.
Lolli family, 149.
Lombards, 27.
Longhi, 136, 140.
Lorrain, Claude de, 4.
Louvre, The, 156.
Lucchesi, 2.

Macaulay, 51, 92.
Macquoid, Percy, 68.
Machiavelii, 28.
Maecenas, 148.
Marieschi, 136.
Mariette, 8.
Marot, 105.
Mascati, 2.
Mattel Villa, 148.
Menzies, 124.
Michaud, i, 164.
Michelangelo, 188.
Milton, 19, 188.
Moliere, 45.
Monnier, 37, 135, 139.
Monsagrati, 43.
Montalto, Cardinal, 147.
Morris, 92.
Mozart, 140.
Mylne, 113.

N
Naples, '12.
Neptune, Temple of, 14, 130.

Nero, II.

Newgate Prison, iii, 121.

Newton, 51, 54, 187.

Nollekens, 52, 148.

Normans, 27.

Norwich School of Painting,

56.
Nostell Priory, j^f-

Psestum, 9, 12, 32, 123, 128.
Palladio, 14, 32.
Palmerston, Lord, 91.
Pannini, 4, 25, 39.
Pantanello, 149.
Pantheon, The, 28, 132, 163.
Parker, 76, 78.
Pasquali, 140.
Pastorini, 47.
Paul, The Czar, 139.
Pergolesi, 47, 65, 67.
"Periwig and Pigtail," 63.
Petty, 51.
Petworth, 145.
Philoctetus, 180.
Pio-Clementine Musee, 152,

160.
Piranesi's —

birth, I.

burial place, 33.

courtship, 36.

copious output, 5.

daughter Laura, 32.

dedication of Antichitct
Romane to Charlemont,
76.

dreams, 106.

earnings, 41.

214

Piranesi's —

election to Society of Anti-
quaries, 70.

English and Scottish
admirers, 91.

journey to Naples, 12.

journey to Rome, 4.

habit of working out of
doors, 1 19.

influence on furniture
design, 59 to 68, 71.

instructors, 4.

knighthood, 7.

models, 21.

pupils, 30.

quarrel with Charlemont, 79.

return to Rome, 16, 17.

son Francesco, 13, 18, 32,
123, 132, 156, 158, 164.

son Pietro, 32.
Piroli, 31.
Pisani, 139, 140.
Pitt Bridge, The, 113.
Pius VI., Pope, 160.
Poe, E. Allan, 115.
Pola, 17.
Polanzani, 12.
Pompeii, 12.
Ponte, D. A., 140.
Porson, 187.

Pretender, The Old, 141.
Pretender, The Young, 141.
Priestley & Weale, 21.
Priorato, II, 34.
Pyrrhus, 130.

Q
Quincey, de, 104.

Regia Calcografia, 99.
Revett, N., 'jT, 78.
Reynolds, Sir J., 76, 87.
Rezzonico, 21, 35.
Ricci of Belluno, 4.
Rimini, 17.
Rococo, 62, 63.
Rossi, Girolamo, 30.

Salcindio Tiseio, 39, 112.
Santa Maria del Popolo, 34.
St. Andrea della Fratte, 33.
St. Maria Aventina, 2>2)'
St. Oswald, Lord, 'j'^.
St. Peter's, 28, 116.
St. Vincent, Lord, 165.
Saracens, 27, 130.
Scalfarotto, i, 4.
Schiller, 142.
Schopenhauer, 192.
Scott, Sir Walter, i, 141.
Septizonium of Severus, 28.
Shakespeare, 188.
Shelburne, Earl of, 144, 150,

153.
Shelley, 5.

Sheraton, Thomas, 47, 178.
Sibyl, Temple of, 122.
Sicilies, The Two, 13.
Sion House, 55.
Sixtus v., Pope, 147.
Slade, T. M., 91.
Sloane, Sir Hans, 51.
Smith, " Rainy Day," 148.
Soane, Sir John, 60, 68, 1 10,

121, 122.

215

Society of Arts, 53.
Society, The Royal, 51.
Somerset House, 46.
Spalato, 46, 90.
Spenser, 188.
Spiers, Phene, 11.
Stanley, Lord, 49.
Stockholm, 162.
Stolberg, Baron, 33.
Stuart, Athenian, ^p^ 78.
Sturgis, Russell, 118, 128.
Swarbrick, John, 44.
Sybaris, 15, 129.

Talbot, Thomas Mansel, 144.
Tarentum, Bay of, 15.
Tarquinius Priscus, 10.
Temanza, i, 41.
Tessin, 157.
Thackeray, 187.
Thorwaldsen, 39.
Tiber floods, 27.
Tiepolo, 12, 138.
Tiepoletto, 138.
Tijou, 106.
Tintoret, 188.
Tipaldo, 23, 163,
Titus, Arch of, 27.
Tivoli, 122.
Tomati Palazzo, 39.
Totila, 26.

Tor Colombaro, 152.
Townley, Charles, 91, 144, 145,
149.

Trinitk de Monti, 39.
Troubridge, Sir Thomas, 165.
Tucker, 166.
Tuscany, Grand Duke of, 156.

Valeriani, 4, 5.

Vandals, 27.

Vanderveldes, 53.

Vandyck, 53.

Vasi, 4, 5.

Venice, its attractions, 135.

Venuti, 40.

Verona, 17.

Verrio, 53.

Vestris, 87.

Visconti, 153, 164.

Vitiges, 27.

Volpi, 24.

Voltaire, 138, 171.

Wallis, 51.
Walpole, 104.
Wedgwood, 126.
Wilson, Richard, 145.
Winckelmann, 46, 47, 48, 141,

168.
Wolcot, 92.
Wood, Robert, ']'].
Wren, Sir Christopher, 52.

Zatta, 140.
Zoega, 154.
Zucchi, 47, 48, 88.

Printed by MORRISON & GiBB LIMITED, Edinburgh

DATE DUE 1

FEB 2 5 t998

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^ 0 4 2005

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DEMCO, INC. 38-2971 j

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