Framed, magnificent Vatican Loggia fresco by Raphael, c1776.
$6,500.00
18thC joined-pair of engravings of Raphael Loggia fresco.
This original joined-pair of large copperplate engravings represents the front side fresco of one of the Loggia pilasters. Raphael supervised his artisans as they painted his designs onto the freshly applied plaster of the Vatican Loggia ceiling vaults, arches and walls during 1518 and 1519, the last two years of his life. The tall pilasters are remarkable in size and grandeur. Raphael’s finely detailed frescoes simulated marble panels, classical designs, and fruits and flowers linked by ribbons. His vertical strips of different decorative subjects became known as grotesques, and influenced design during the Neo-Classical era in Europe.
250 years after the frescoes were completed, Pope Clement XIII commissioned eminent artist Cai Savorelli, draughtsman Ludovico Teseo Taurinensis and architect Pietro Camporesi to record Raphael’s brilliant fresco designs. Their drawings were then engraved on copper-plates by Giovanni Ottaviani and Giovanni Volpato. Each tall pilaster was engraved on two large copperplates which were joined after printing. It was an epic production that was published in four parts between 1772 and 1776. The superb pilaster engravings were luxuriantly hand-coloured with gouache, an opaque watercolour that dries to produce the brilliant colours usually associated with oil paints. Where sections of fresco were illegible from weather damage, elements from Raphael’s Vatican tapestries were incorporated.
Scanned images do not do justice to these beautifully-coloured large framed pilasters. Double plate (image) size is approximately 105 x 44cm (41 x 17.25 inches). This fresco engraving is in the same grandly-carved gold frame as the next 2 items. Each external frame size is 700cm x 135cm.
(If bought from this website there would be an additional charge for shipment of framed artwork, depending on destination and shipment method, as quoted shipment charge is for local delivery.)
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