A bas-relief of a warship at the battle of Actium. Etching by G.B. Piranesi, ca. 1771.

  • Piranesi, Giovanni Battista, 1720-1778.
Date:
[1771?]
Reference:
2499309i
  • Pictures

About this work

Description

The iconography is described in extenso in the lettering. On the left is the prow of the ship, carved with heads of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Below left, a crocodile, symbol of the Nile. The two armed men in the foreground are identified as Agrippa and Augustus (then Octavian). The holes though which the oars pass from inside to outside the ship are lined with animal skins to prevent the ingress of water

Publication/Creation

[Rome] : [publisher not identified], [1771?]

Physical description

1 print : etching ; platemark approximately 37.5 x 51.6 cm

Contributors

Lettering

Parte angolare di antico fregio di marmo, anticamente apparteneva alla fabrica aggiunta al tempio in Preneste, e fatta fare da Augusto dopo la vittoria ottenuta ad Azzio ... Cavalier Piranesi f. Said in the lettering to have been commissioned by Augustus for the frieze of a temple at Palestrina (Praeneste), subsequently in the villa of Prince Barberini at Palestrina, and "oggidì nel nuovo museo Clementino in Vaticano" (today in the new Museo [Pio-]Clementino in the Vatican [founded in 1771])

Reference

Wellcome Collection 2499309i

Type/Technique

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Subjects

Where to find it

  • LocationStatusAccess
    Closed stores

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