• Giovanni Battista Piranesi (engraver (printmaker))
• Giovanni Battista Piranesi (draughtsman)
• Giovanni Battista Piranesi (etcher)
• Pirro Ligorio (architect)
• Pirro Ligorio (landscape architect)

A view of the Villa d'Este and its gardens, Tivoli

published 1773

- A view of the Villa d'Este and its garden, depicting the central alley down the middle of the garden, with the villa rising above and outlined against the sky. The standpoint from which the view is taken lies at the centre of a circle of cypresses, the cypresses having been omitted to permit an unobstructed prospect of the garden. The effect of perspectival recession is intensified by an artifical but dramatic increase in the size of the foreground fountains and statues (representing the Liberal Arts), and by the diminutive stature of the human figures who work or saunter in the garden nearby. Along the central alley, which links a series of terraces mounting to the villa, are visible the "Fountain of Gentle Dragons", the so-called "viale de Cento Fontane", and the multistoried "Fountain of the Cups" attributed to Gian Lorenzo Bernini. In the far right background can be seen the "Fountain of the Birds" and the "Fountain of Proserpina". Variety and vertical accentuation in the composition are provided by a few cypresses and umbrella pines in the middle distance.

• topographical view
• veduta

Etching and engraving

plate mark: 47.0 x 70.9 cm sheet: 53.6 x 72.9 cm

DR1985:0272

• perspective drawing

• exterior view

imprinted - l.c.: "VEDUTA DELLA / VILLA ESTNSE / IN TIVOLI"; l.r.: "G. Piranesi inc." dated - by a modern hand, in graphite, l.c.: "ca 1766" inscribed - by a modern hand, in graphite, verso, l.l.: "6307"

• architecture
• landscape architecture
• topographic