Architetture, e prospettive dedicate alla maesta di Carlo Sesto

ARCHITECTURE. THEATER DESIGN. Galli Bibiena, Giuseppe (1696-1757)

Published by Andreas Pfeffel, Augsburg, 1740

Bound in modern three-quarter green morocco and marbled boards, spine gilt. A fine, complete set. Provenance: With the ownership inscription of the master draftsman and printmaker Luigi Rossini (1790-1857), the last of the great Roman vedutisti, whose Roman scenes and imposing architectural views, while inevitably compared to those of Piranesi, reflected his own era and the scientific Roman archaeology of the period. Rossini has also written a bibliographical note, noting the extreme freshness of the plates in this copy, which he compares favorably to the excellent copy in the Vatican's Cicognara Library. He also notes that artists will find many beautiful Baroque motifs that they can draw from for their own work, though not, in his opinion, from the images of the catafalques. Some letters along the leading edge of the note are obscured by the paste-down. Here they are given in brackets: "[Es]emplare completo con li rami freschissimi, [. op]era di questo sommo prospettico ma temibile barocco. [N]onostante si possono prendere dei belli motivi, dalle [?] barocche scene, non così però dai catafalchi. [B]ellissimo a questo è altro esemplare alla Vaticana nella [lib]reria Cicognara, ma le stampe molto meno fresche di questo sono." First edition of this richly illustrated work on architecture and perspective. The publication of "Architetture, e prospettive" made a major contribution to the modernization of the theater, establishing the so-called scena ad angolo , curved backdrops, on Europe s stages. The second son of the Italian architect Ferdinando Galli Bibiena, Giuseppe Galli da Bibiena was to become a distinguished artist and designer of elaborate festivals, parties, funerals, open-air theatrical performances, and all manner of ceremony for the Habsburg rulers. He proved himself an excellent illusionistic painter with a deep theoretical understanding of perspective. These attributes, coupled with an extraordinary imagination, allowed Giuseppe to produce innovative, often fantastic imagery. Among his early independent works were decorations for the festivities celebrating the birth of Archduke Leopold of Austria (1716) and an imperial wedding in Munich (1722). In 1727 Emperor Charles V appointed Giuseppe to be "His Majesty's First Theatrical Engineer". Galli Bibiena also designed altars and pulpits for churches, constructed a decorative arch in Prague, and with his younger brother Antonio, designed decorations for theaters. After Charles V s death Giuseppe served the late monarch s daughter, Maria Theresia. Among his notable achievements in this period, Giuseppe transformed the stables at the Hofburg in Vienna into a ballroom for the wedding of Charles Alexander of Lorraine to Marianna of Austria. In 1747, he was commissioned to design Margrave Frederick of Bayreuth s opera house, considered his magnum opus. At the time of his death, at Berlin in 1757, Galli Bibiena was in the employ of Peter the Great. "Architetture, e prospettive", dedicated to and with a portrait of Charles V, was printed in the year of Emperor s death and at the height of Galli Bibiena s career. The work is comprised of five series of plates with ten plates each, depicting funerary apparatus, religious scenery ("teatri sacri"), and fantastic architectural views. "The range of motifs and views embraces topics that were of great interest at the end of the baroque era, such as fantasy-laden reconstructions of classical ruins. In his designs, the artist made use of various methods to make the architecture monumental, working above all with views from below and cropped sections. In many designs he used the scena ad angolo technique and in others (in particular for the depiction of festive decorations for imperial ceremonies) he used a central perspective as a dignified form… "[One of the sets of engravings shows] the decoration of the Cavallerizia, the riding arena, which was transformed in 1744 into a ballroom. The plates were made by Lorenzo Zucchi, the engr. Seller Inventory # 5030

Bibliographic Details

Title: Architetture, e prospettive dedicate alla ...
Publisher: Andreas Pfeffel, Augsburg
Publication Date: 1740
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Fine
Edition: FIRST EDITION.