ROME GREAT TOUR
Length cm 26
Spread cm 46
Sticks 20 plus 2
Italy, around 1790-1800
Fan painted at distemper on paper.
The page represents three sights of the ancient Rome following the style of Piranesi and it’s divided by precious “grotesques” close to the XVI style, studied and reproduced by Raffaello in the “Logge Vaticane”, as even by Morto da Feltre, after the discovery of Domus Aurea.
At the center, in an oval, we can see the “Temple of Concord”, on the left “The Arc of Giano” and on the right the ruins of a temple which has never been identified.
The sticks, of English manner, are fretted according to a style which will cross the century, and they can be placed in the last decade of the XVIII century.
Curiosities:
Morto da Feltre (Feltre 1480-Venezia o Zara 1527), Lorenzo Luzzo or Pietro Luzzi, according to Vasari, he was so called for his attitude to pass his most of his time under the ground. In fact, he studied with great interest the paintings discovered in Rome (Domus Aurea) and in Tivoli (Villa Adriana).
In 1494 when he was very young, he worked with Pinturicchio in Rome, and he knew the biggest artists of the time: Raffaello, Signorelli, Lippi and Vasari. In 1507 he decorated with Giorgione in Venice, the “Fondaco dei Tedeschi” in Rialto. He died as venture captain during a battle.
Grotesques
The term comes from “grotte”, from the decorations of buildings almost buried of the Imperial age, found in the center of Italy during the Renaissance.
The evolution of the decorations in “grotesques” goes on for two centuries until the neoclassical period called In France “gout gréc” and the Louis XVI , in England Adam style and for the furniture Chippendale, in Austria Biedermeier, in America Federal style.
