Rossini (Luigi)

a view of one of the three oldest gates in the most exposed stretch of ancient Rome’s Servian wall, now filled in to solidify it, the others being the Porta Collina and the Porta Esquilina. This is one of 101 plates produced by Rossini (1790-1857) for his great work ‘Le Antichitá Romane’ (1819-1829), which followed very much in the tradition established by his 18th century predecessor, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, in recording the increasingly rediscovered remnants of ancient Rome being unearthed by archaeologists in amongst the grandeur of later baroque Rome. Rossini’s plates are distinguished by the greater presence of contemporary figures going about their daily lives at all levels of society,

engraving on wove paper, 405 x 500 mm. (16 x 19 3/4 in), a few repaired tears at the upper sheet edge,