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Description

Giovanni Ottaviani (1735-1808) and Giovanni Volpato (1740-1803) after drawings by Pietro Camporesi (1726-81) and Gaetano Savorelli (d. 1791), a bound folio containing an incomplete series of 11 copperplate engravings with later hand colouring taken from Volume I Loggie di Rafaele nel Vaticano, 3 plates being single page, 1 folding plate and 7 double page size, all in a worn binding Footnote: These 18th century hand-coloured engravings are from the famous series Loggie di Rafaele nel Vaticano, which consisted of 43 plates published in 3 volumes. The plates show the 'grotesque style' decorations executed by Raphael and his assistants in the Loggie of the Vatican palace for Pope Leo X (1475-1521) in 1515-1519. Raphael’s pilaster frescoes for the walls of the Loggie, featuring plants, flowers, fruit tendrils, mythological creatures and architectural elements were directly inspired by the then recently excavated ancient Roman decorations in the Domus Aurea of Nero. Over 200 years later, the engravers Giovanni Ottaviani (1735-1808) and Giovanni Volpato (1740-1803) were commissioned by Pope Clement XIII (1693-1769) to print a series of copperplate engravings after Raphael’s Loggie. Each engraving was made in 2 parts, based on the designs drawn by the architect Pietro Camporesi (1726-1781), painter Gaetano Savorelli (d. 1791) and draughtsman Lodovico Teseo (1731-1782). The present lot includes one title-plate showing a view along the loggia with an oval portrait of Raphael (61 x 40cm), plates A and B showing the two doors at the end of the loggia (75 x 42cm), three unnumbered plates placed together showing a plan and elevation captioned 'Spaccato per il longo del secondo piano della loggia nel Cortile del Palazzo Vaticano corrispondente nel Cortile grande detto di S. Damaso, ove si dimostra l'Architettura ed Ornati della medema dipinti da Giovanni da Udine con la direzzione di Rafaele Sanzio da Urbino' (24 x 160cm), and fourteen plates showing the decoration of pilasters between windows on the inner side of the loggia pasted as mismatched pairs on seven sequential pages each inscribed 'Joann. Ottaviani sculp. cum privilegio SS.D.N. Clementis XIII.' and 'Cai Savorelli Piet., et Pet. Camporesi Arch. delin.', including numbers I to XIII and another unnumbered (100 x 78cm pasted together)

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