GIOVANNI B. PIRANESI Veduta della Villa dell'Emo Sig. Card. Alesandro Albani fuori di Porta Salaria.
Etching, 1769. 445x695 mm; 17 3/8x27 1/4 inches, wide margins. First state (of 3). From the Vedute di Roma. A brilliant, richly-inked impression with very strong contrasts.
Unlike many of Piranesi's (1720-1778) etchings from Vedute di Roma, which represent edifices and architectural views from classical Rome and the Renaissance, this depicts a project contemporaneous with the artist. The Villa Albani in Rome was built at the Via Salaria for Cardinal Alessandro Albani, nephew of Pope Clement XI, between 1747 and 1767; it was among the grandest and most celebrated Roman villas of the 18th century. Hind 89.
