Pietro Bracci was a leading sculptor of eighteenth-century Rome, but the dispersal of his drawings has hampered study of the interplay between his approach to design and his response to Rome's vast artistic heritage. Using a group of Bracci drawings acquired by the Canadian Centre for Architecture as their point d'appui, Elisabeth Kieven and John Pinto have prepared a long-overdue catalogue of Bracci's complete study collection, from preliminary sketches to finished presentation drawings. Kieven and Pinto discuss the origin and function of each drawing and offer a wealth of new insights into Bracci's remarkable skill at integrating sculpture into Rome's grand buildings and public spaces.Bracci won some of the most sought-after commissions in eighteenth-century Rome, including monuments in Saint Peter's and the allegorical figures of the Trevi Fountain. Kieven's and Pinto's introductory essays situate these and other commissions in the history of Roman architecture and urbanism, survey Bracci's career, and explore the context of his drawing practices. Considered together, the Bracci drawings shed important new light on the collaborative relationship between architects and sculptors in the design of one of the art capitals of the world.Kieven and Pinto's book concludes with a catalogue raisonné of the entire corpus of drawings ascribed to Bracci and his son Virginio. In addition, their book illustrates all of Bracci's drawings and provides transcriptions of key documents.

Pietro Bracci and Eighteenth-Century Rome: Drawings for Architecture and Sculpture in the Canadian Centre for Architecture and Other Collections

Arts & Photography

Pinto, John

Kieven, Elisabeth

History & Criticism

Penn State University Press

As they had during the Renaissance, ruins in the eighteenth century continued to serve as places of exchange between antiquity and modern times and between one architect and another. Rome functioned as a cultural entrepôt, drawing to it architects of the caliber of Filippo Juvarra, Robert Adam, Charles-Louis Clérisseau, and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Through their collaboration, on-site exchanges, publications, and polemics, architects contributed notably to fashioning a more critical and sophisticated view of the material heritage of classical antiquity, one that we associate with the Enlightenment and the origins of modern archaeology. In this lavishly illustrated volume stemming from his Thomas Spencer Jerome Lectures at the University of Michigan and the American Academy in Rome, distinguished architectural historian John A. Pinto traces an extraordinary path through the development of European architecture. This period saw the transformation of history and archaeology. Texts were treated more skeptically as scholars placed greater reliance on artifacts as sources of information, and architects such as Giovanni Battista Piranesi increasingly played a crucial role in the recording and visual presentation of ancient art and architecture. 
Piranesi and other eighteenth-century architects active in Rome explored the full creative potential of ancient architecture, its dual metaphorical function as both palimpsest and template. Their responses to the ruins of Rome, as well as other parts of the classical world, created a significant body of historical knowledge, but also propelled them to create new and dazzling designs, such as the Trevi Fountain, Santa Maria del Priorato, and Syon House. Their elaborate study and accurate renderings of ancient sites enriched contemporary understanding of the material heritage of classical antiquity; their informed conjectures and flights of fancy gave it wings. Their encounters on sites such as Hadrian's Villa and Pompeii, where the ruins spoke with great eloquence, greatly enriched the architectural discourse of the Enlightenment. Speaking Ruinsemphasizes the close relationship between the intensifying archaeological explorations in this period especially in Rome and vicinity, but also in Greece and the Levant, and the development of post-Baroque styles in architecture, shading gradually into romanticism and neoclassicism. 
Speaking Ruinsis an investigation of the legacy of classical antiquity. As a study of the classical tradition, it should be of particular interest to classicists and archaeologists, while its argument that eighteenth-century Rome provided a crucible for the developing disciplines of archaeology and art history will engage the interest of a wide range of humanistic scholars. Speaking Ruinstells a fascinating story, with Piranesi and his works centrally involved.

Speaking Ruins: Piranesi, Architects and Antiquity in Eighteenth-Century Rome (Thomas Spencer Jerome Lectures)

University of Michigan Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pinto, John. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Pinto, John