Rossini Engravings

Original Antique Copper-Plate Engravings

Drawn and engraved by LUIGI ROSSINI, Architect and Engraver

from an imperial folio volume of

 

LE ANTICHITA ROMANE

 

Authenticity is Guaranteed.

 

We have a limited number of quality original antique Rossini engravings available for collectors, and only one of each.

 

LUIGI ROSSINI was a renowned Italian Architect, Painter and Etcher. He was born in Ravenna, Italy on December 15, 1790. He died in Rome on April 22, 1857. Rossini graduated in both Architecture and Art from the Academy of Bologna studying in Rome between 1817 and 1824, where he engraved many large plates of ancient architecture.  The greater part of his work appeared in a collected edition of seven Imperial folio volumes published in 1829 as LE ANTICHITA ROMANE (The Rome of Antiquity, a Collection of the Most Interesting Views of Ancient Rome).

 

Rossini's reputation is one of the premier practitioners of neoclassical etching. He lived in a period of great archaeological activity. Rossini's etchings of Rome followed Giovanni Battista Piranesi's (1720-1778) example, and reported the latest excavations to an avid European audience. These etchings stimulated worldwide interest in classical architecture and are truly historic.

 

His images of temples, public baths, basilicas and monuments exalts the strength and beauty of Roman architecture. This plate shows skill and vigor in their execution, renders masses of solid stone work and reflect Rossini's ability to capture the detail that made Roman architecture so splendid. They were so detailed as to be used by architects, and classical scholars. Several views record ancient monuments which disappeared shortly afterward, leaving only Rossini's records of the 19th century excavations.

 

The Connoisseur characterized his etchings as being "vigorous, convincing and imaginative." (periodical 1913 Vol. 35 p.101) The complexity of producing large copper plates with this abundance of architectural scale and contrasting dark and light detail, engraved and etched by hand in reverse, then inked and hand printed is appreciated as the work of an Old Master Artist.

 

Luigi Rossini is listed in the 2003 Gold Edition of Davenport’s Art Reference & Guide Book on page 1741

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Provenance: These particular engravings came from a book inscribed as belonging to:

 “E. Cameron Galton, Newland House, Eynsham, Oxon”

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