Description
Giovanni Battista Falda's Fountains of Rome
These detailed engraving come from the work entitled Le Fontane di Roma (The Fountains of Rome). They are seventeenth century views of celebrated fountains and gardens in Italy, some of the finest landscapes during the Italian Baroque period. "This collection [Le Fontane] is the most charming that has ever appeared on the fountains of Rome and its environs" (Fowler p. 101). "The Faldaā engravings come to life particularily in the garden scenes which are often populated with Italians in contemporary costume engaged in recreational pastimes. All of the engravings demonstrate a mastery of perspective, and they offer a rich panorama of the Italian landscape by incorporating the surrounding architecture, topographical details, overall garden designs, and contemporary human figures and animals. It is significant to note that most of the gardens and many of the fountains are now vastly changed from these seventeenth-century depictions, and thus they are of extreme historical importance" (Ursus Rare Books, Catalog 166, #16). They have been professionally hand colored recently. They are on fine chain linked paper, each horizontal page bearing a large impressive watermark in the center. Each measures ~ 16" by 11".