Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Italian (1720 - 1778) Primary

Veduta della gran Piazza e Basilica de S. Pietro

ca. 1771

Plate
18 3/4 in. x 28 in. (47.63 cm x 71.12 cm)

This object has the following keywords:

• Animalia - Kingdom containing multicellular organisms having cells bound by a plasma membrane and organized into tissue and specialized tissue systems that permit them to either move about in search of food or to draw food toward themselves. Unable to make their own food within themselves, as photosynthetic plants do, they rely on consuming preformed food. They possess a nervous system with sensory and motor nerves, enabling them to receive environmental stimuli and to respond with specialized movements.
• architecture
• basilicas - Refers to religious or secular buildings characterized by an oblong plan divided into a nave with two or more side aisles, the former higher and wider than the latter and generally lit by clerestory windows; usually terminated by an apse. In Roman and Early Christian basilicas, the ground plan typically was a parallelogram in which the width was not greater than one-half of the length and not less than one-third of it. When there was more space in the length, porticoes were built on the short sides. The middle space was separated by columns from a lower ambulatory or portico; the width of the ambulatory equaled the height of the columns and measured one-third of the width of the central space. Vaulting could be used in the side aisles, but a flat roof was used for the very broad middle nave. Eventually basilicas were built with 5 and 7 aisles; a transept was often placed between the nave and the apse. The roofing of the transept together with the apse and portico produced variety in the exterior of basilicas.
• carriages - Refers to horse-drawn wheeled vehicles designed primarily to convey people in some comfort.
• etchings - Prints made from an etched printing plate, which is a metal plate on which a design is made by coating the plate with an acid-resistant substance, creating a design in the coating, and then exposing the plate to acid, which etches the plate where the metal is exposed. For designs incised directly into a copper plate using a burin or graver, use "engravings (prints)."
• figures - Representations of humans, animals, or mythical beasts, in any medium.
• fountains - Structures with apertures designed to allow water to spout or flow periodically or continuously, as for amenity or public access.
• Italian - Refers to the culture of the modern nation of Italy, or in general to cultures that have occupied the boot-shaped Italian peninsula in the Mediterranean Sea.
• obelisks - Tall, slender, four-sided, usually monolithic stone shafts which taper upward and end in a pyramidal tip.
• Roman Catholicism - Refers to the branch of Christianity characterized by a uniform, highly developed ritual canon and organizational structure with doctrinal roots based in the teachings of the Apostles of Jesus Christ in the first century, in the Alexandrian school of theology, and in Augustinian thought. In this religious branch, faith is considered an acceptance of revelation; revelation appears as doctrine. In juridical terms, it refers to the branch of Christianity distinguished as a unified, monolithic sacramental system under the governance of papal authority. Throughout much of its history, the seat of the Pope has been in Rome, thus "Roman Catholicism" is often used to distinguish this concept from the Orthodox Catholic church.

• Plate Dimensions: 18 3/4 x 28 in. (47.625 x 71.12 cm)

This object is a member of the following portfolios: