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The Eclipsed Son Francesco Piranesi and the First Paris Edition of the Works of Giovanni Battista Piranesi Colin Holden

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The Eclipsed Son Francesco Piranesi and the First Paris Edition of the Works of Giovanni Battista Piranesi Colin Holden The eclipsed son Francesco Piranesi and the first Paris edition of the works of Giovanni Battista Piranesi Colin Holden The Baillieu Library at the (a luxury item in their day) appears the republican government established University of Melbourne is unique to be original—boards covered in in Rome in 1798. When royalist among Melbourne collections in its red combed paper and red leather Neapolitan forces briefly took the ownership of a particular edition of spines stamped with large fleur-de- city in autumn the following year, the the works of the 18th-century artist lis, Grecian key motifs and titles in brothers loaded all of their father’s and printmaker Giovanni Battista French. Many contain an identical copper plates and some other effects Piranesi (1720–1778). These holdings binder’s ticket, giving an address from his workshop onto an armed comprise just over one thousand where the binder, Tessier, worked French brig, only for the vessel to etched and engraved works, arguably between 1804 and 1807.1 Other be captured by a squadron led by the greatest body of prints created volumes were subsequently re-bound Captain (subsequently Admiral) in connection with the Grand Tour. in a similar way, using brown leather Thomas Troubridge, then Horatio These are not Roman printings made and paper, by Milanese book- and Nelson’s second-in-command in during the artist’s lifetime, but a print sellers Pietro and Giuseppe the Mediterranean. Troubridge was posthumous edition published in Paris Vallardi, slightly later in the same familiar with Piranesi’s work—not between 1800 and 1807. The title century.2 The largest volumes are surprisingly, given its popularity pages of the earliest volumes record on a truly grand scale, single pages among English collectors and Grand the year of publication according to measuring half by three-quarters Tourists. He arranged for safe the French revolutionary calendar; of a metre. Their first Australian conduct to France for the brothers not until 1804 do they revert to the owner, James Alipius Goold, and the precious plates, and obtained common Western calendar. This Melbourne’s first Roman Catholic assurances from French authorities edition is the masterwork and the bishop (subsequently archbishop), that their rights as owners would most ambitious project of Francesco was an extensive book collector be protected. Francesco presented Piranesi (1758–1810), Giovanni and a foundation member of the Troubridge with a complete set of his Battista’s eldest son, a competent University Council. He housed these father’s work.3 While this reads like printmaker himself, whose own and similar folios in special shelving something in a C.S. Forester novel, prints form several volumes in the in his library. Their purchase by the it is ultimately just one episode in a series. It is generally styled ‘the first Baillieu Library in 1974–75 was larger and remarkable story of which Paris edition’ of the senior Piranesi’s supported by funds from the Ivy only a fraction can be told here— work, to distinguish it from the May Pendlebury Bequest. Francesco’s life as a printmaker, edition published in Paris well after Behind this edition lie two art dealer, entrepreneur, man of Francesco’s death by Firmin-Didot remarkable stories. The first concerns letters, publisher and diplomat. The between 1835 and 1839, a fine copy the immediate circumstances that second part of this article focuses on of which is one of the treasures of the gave rise to Francesco’s Parisian Francesco’s intentions in publishing State Library of Victoria. publishing project. Along with his the first Paris edition, offering an The binding of most of the 23 younger brother Pietro, Francesco explanation for the sudden failure of folio volumes in the Baillieu Library Piranesi held public office as part of this and his other business ventures, Colin Holden, ‘The eclipsed son’ 3 Left: The rich red Parisian binding of the Baillieu Library’s set of Piranesi’s works, from ‘the first Paris edition’ published by Francesco Piranesi in 1800–07. Many volumes contain the ticket of Tessier, the original binder. Special Collections, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne. Right: Francesco Piranesi, title page from Raccolta de’ tempj antichi (1780), Paris: Francesco Piranesi, c. 1800–07, two parts bound in the one volume numbered vol. VI. Special Collections, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne. In this capriccio, the Pantheon and the Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli are conspicuous. Francesco created the Raccolta as a sequel to his father’s Antichità romane. and pointing to the desirability of in 1758.5 His father directed him to as a sequel to his father’s Antichità reassessing Francesco and his work different artists in Rome for basic romane, its plates provided detailed in publishing his father’s output. instruction. These teachers included measurements and cross-sections However, a concise outline of his the painter Domenico Corvi, of the Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli life before the dramatic voyage to Giovanni Volpato, Domenico Cunego and the so-called Temple of Honour Paris is a necessary preliminary, given and the German brothers Philipp and Virtue. The 1790 volume the paucity of scholarly material on and Johann Gottlieb Hackert—all of completing the series did the same him current in English, in contrast whom were able printmakers—and for the Pantheon. By 1783 Francesco to a body of primary material and the architect Pierre-Adrien Pâris was publishing Il teatro d’Ercolano, important recent secondary studies at the Académie de France.6 In his based on the visit south with his in Italian and French. Among father’s last year, Francesco joined father. In 1784 he supervised a more recent publications, Rossana him on a trip to Herculaneum and to reprinting of his father’s Antichità Lumetti’s study of Francesco in the Paestum, south of Naples, the site of romane and the following year context of Enlightenment culture is three well-preserved Greek temples. issued his Monumenti degli Scipioni, invaluable for its citation of much Giovanni Battista died before the documenting a monument that had unpublished contemporary material. publication of a set of 20 vedute only been unearthed in the previous Another is the critical edition by (views) featuring the temples, which half-decade.10 The next year yet Erouart and Mosser of the Notice Francesco saw through the press. another work appeared, the Collection historique, an early biography of Though Francesco named himself des plus belles statues. Here one of his Giovanni Battista Piranesi by on the frontispiece and two of these collaborators was Tommaso Piroli, architect Jacques-Guillaume Legrand, vedute, his actual contribution was who would work again in Paris with whose father-in-law, Charles Louis unquestionably minimal.7 However, the Piranesi brothers. In the Raccolta Clérisseau, was a long-term friend Francesco used drawings and detailed de’ tempj antichi and Monumenti degli of the great printmaker. Despite measurements made on this trip in Scipioni the classical scholar Ennio having being commissioned by later publications, notably Il teatro Quirino Visconti also collaborated by Francesco for publication as part of d’Ercolano (1783) and later again in providing texts.11 the first Paris edition, the biography the three volumes of Antiquités de la The sons’ inheritance included remained unpublished until 1921, grande Grèce, published between 1804 remaining stock of the antique and is important for the light it casts and 1807 among the last volumes of sculptures and statuary that their on the edition itself, and the setting the series produced in Paris.8 father had sold from his workshop in which the brothers’ business, the The sons inherited their father’s to Grand Tourists. Francesco’s Calcographie Piranesi, operated.4 business and workshop, and also a social status rose markedly when pattern of intense, almost ceaseless, he negotiated the sale of most of Francesco’s Rome years activity.9 By 1780 Francesco had this collection to Gustavus III of Francesco was born to Giovanni published the first part of his Sweden, an Enlightenment despot Battista and his wife, Angela Pasquini, Raccolta de’ tempj antichi. Conceived who was anxious to create his 4 University of Melbourne Collections, issue 11, December 2012 own collection of antiquities. The Sweden.12 Francesco began signing as the ultimate mover against him statuary—in Francesco’s own list, 96 himself ‘cav[aliere]’ (knight) on in this affair.14 Though the situation items—arrived in September 1785 publications such as his Monumenti is too complicated to describe in Stockholm, where it remains to degli Scipioni, instead of ‘architetto’, here in detail, Lumetti’s extensive this day. To expedite this, in 1783 which had appeared on some earlier research on the correspondence the king conferred diplomatic status publications. His father had made between Piranesi and the Swedish on Francesco as his cultural agent precisely the same shifts in styling court found no evidence to in Rome, and also as agent to the himself after he received the same support Acton’s allegation, and ports of the Papal States. In return, knighthood in 1765. Francesco published a spirited Francesco chose to be paid an annual In the next decade, Francesco’s defence—actually the work of the pension, and continued to make diplomatic status became a poisoned poet Vincenzo Monti—under his recommendations to the Swedish chalice. In 1794, the Prime Minister own name. The Swedish court court concerning further potential of Naples, Sir John Acton, accused registered its approval of Francesco’s acquisitions. It was probably in Francesco of planning to assassinate fidelity by the award of another conjunction with the king’s visit to Count Gustaf Armfelt, a roving knighthood, the étoile polaire, Rome and Francesco’s diplomatic Swedish diplomat who was out of in 1796, but Neapolitan justice status that he was awarded a papal favour with the regency then ruling sentenced two of his assistants, knighthood, the speron d’oro, at Sweden but was protected by the charged with complicity in the about this time.
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