Attributed to Étienne Dupérac

Attributed to Étienne Dupérac
(Paris or Bordeaux 1520–1604 Paris)

The Baths of Diocletian (Reconstructed View)

The Ruins of Rome, ca. 1569–75 (illustrations)
Manuscript with 46 illustrations and accompanying text in Italian

Pen and brown ink, with brown wash, on vellum
Leaves: 9 13/16 x 7 13/16 inches (250 x 200 mm)

Gift of the Giannalisa Feltrinelli Foundation, Ltd., in memory of Giannalisa Feltrinelli, 1997

MS M.1106
Item description: 

This volume, titled Disegni de le ruine di Roma e come anticamente erono (Drawings of the Ruins of Rome and How They Once Were), contains forty-six pen-and-ink panoramas of sixteenth-century Rome preceded in many cases by imaginatively "restored" views of the same ancient buildings. The illustrations are attributed to the French painter, engraver, and garden designer étienne Dupérac, who resided in Rome from 1559 to 1578. The album, which is on precious vellum and was probably intended as a gift for Pope Gregory XIII, was unfinished.