Prints and Principles

Most of the recent posts give details about individual prints and earlier posts discuss some of the subtle principles guiding artists in making images meaningful and memorable. For prints that are unsold, click "Items still available for sale" below. All other prints are no longer available. My contact email is oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com and my Instagram username is @printsandprinciples. I have created a separate blog to show my own work: https://printsandprinciplesjamesbrown.blogspot.com

Thursday, 6 March 2025

Vincenzo Mariotti, “Dome with its Clerestory”, 1692, after Andrea Pozzo

Vincenzo Mariotti (1650–1734) after the design by Andrea Pozzo (1642–1709)

“Dome with its Clerestory”, 1692, engraved illustration of the “false” dome in the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Campo Marzio painted by Andrea Pozzo in 1685 (see https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sant%27Ignazio_(Rome)_-False_Dome.jpg). This engraving is plate (Figura) 53 to Andrea Pozzo’s famous treatise, published in Rome by Typographia Joannis Jacobi Komarek Boëmi (fl.c.1690–93), “Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum/ Andreae Putei ... ; in quâ docetur modus expeditissimus delineandi opticè omnia quȩ pertinent ad architecturam” (Perspective of painters and architects/ Andrea Putei ... ; in which the most expeditious method of optically drawing all things pertaining to architecture is taught)—a treatise of great importance for illusionistic fresco painting throughout the eighteenth century (see https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG42570).

Archive.org offers and online view of the publication (1693 edition) in which this plate features: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125008639367/page/n354/mode/1up.

Engraving on laid paper with full margins as published.

Size: (sheet) 36 x 21.5 cm; (plate) 28.7 x 17.9 cm

Inscribed in plate: (upper right corner) “Figura 53.”

Condition: a strong and well-printed (near faultless) impression with generously wide margins. There are three significant brown spots, otherwise the sheet is in a very good condition for its considerable age with no tears, holes, folds or abrasions.

I am selling this rare and important engraving that is not only a sensitively executed architectural rendering of Andrea Pozzo’s trompe-l'œil painting of the “false” dome in the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola, but it is also an important illustration in Pozzo’s influential treatise on architecture during the Baroque period, for AU$288 (equivalent to approximately US$181.45, EUR 167.81, or GBP 140.84 at the time of listing) and includes Express Mail Service (EMS) postage and handling to any worldwide destination. Please note that any import duties or taxes levied by the destination country are the responsibility of the buyer and are not included in the purchase price. Payment is requested in Australian dollars (AU$288).

If you are interested in purchasing this very beautiful engraving of an architectural trompe- l'œil, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold