Giacomo Lauro (active c.1584–1637) Four Views of Ancient Roman Buildings

Giacomo Lauro (active c.1584–1637)

Four Views of Ancient Roman Buildings

From Antiquae Urbis Splendor (The Splendour of the Ancient City of Rome)

Copperplate engravings on laid paper

A handsome group of four early–seventeenth-century engravings reconstructing some of the most celebrated buildings of ancient Rome, from Giacomo Lauro’s influential series Antiquae Urbis Splendor. Lauro worked in Rome at the turn of the 17th century, producing imaginative yet erudite views of lost or ruined monuments, drawing on Vitruvius and the classical literary sources that so fascinated antiquarians and later Grand Tourists.

The set comprises:

• Theatrum Pompei Magni – the Theatre of Pompey in the Campus Martius, with the colossal statue of Pompey standing to one side and the great curving cavea wrapped in arcaded storeys.

• De Templo Mercurii – a circular, domed temple of Mercury with a ring of columns and surrounding forum buildings set against a mountainous backdrop.

• Theatrum Cornelii Balbi Gaditani – Lauro’s reconstruction of the Theatre of Cornelius Balbus, its multi-storey façade encasing the steeply raked seating within.

• Theatrum Marci Scauri – the lavish temporary theatre erected by Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, here imagined as an immense multi-tiered structure with attached porticoes and halls.

Printed on fine laid paper with generous margins, the plates show crisp, dark impressions with excellent line detail. Light toning and scattered foxing to the margins, with a soft tide-mark where the sheets have previously been mounted; image areas fresh and clean, presenting very well.

A decorative and scholarly suite, beautifully encapsulating early-Baroque Rome’s vision of the antique city – ideal for framing together as a mini “antiquarian print room” or as companions to Grand Tour sculpture, architectural models and casts.