Domus Aureus. Plate # 15.
Rome: Ludovico Mirri, 1776-1778. Item #05030
The Myth of Phaethon in Nero's Golden House
A Spectacular Originally Hand-Colored Classical Scene
From Mirri's Rare Luxury Colored Issue of the Vestigia delle Terme di Tito
CARLONI, Marco (1742–1796), engraver, after SMUGLEWICZ, Franciszek (1745–1807). Scene from the Story of Phaethon. Plate 15 from Vestigia delle terme di Tito e loro interne pitture. Rome: Presso Ludovico Mirri, 1776–1778.
Original etching and engraving with contemporary hand coloring in watercolor and gouache, from the rare luxury colored issue.
Plate mark 18 1/4 x 14 1/8 inches (463 x 359 mm.). Beautifully matted, framed and glazed in a handsome gilt frame; overall framed size 28 x 23 3/4 inches (711 x 603 mm.). A fine example, the original colors remarkably fresh and brilliant.
A spectacular originally hand-colored plate from one of the most important and visually sumptuous archaeological publications of eighteenth-century Rome, recording an ancient painted scene from the story of Phaethon discovered in the ruins of Nero's legendary Golden House.
The composition presents a wonderfully animated classical scene against an intense blue ground. Four figures accompany a spirited dark horse and a small two-wheeled chariot. At the left stands a youthful nude male figure, a long red and gold mantle billowing dramatically around him; beside the horse appears a blue-robed figure crowned with foliage. A further figure in rose-red stands immediately behind the chariot, while at the right a green-robed figure carries a long staff entwined by a serpent. A slender classical column closes the composition at the right.
Modern scholarship identifies Plates 13–15 of Mirri's Vestigia as illustrations of scenes from the story of Phaethon, the ill-fated son of the sun-god Helios. The Warburg/Engramma database specifically identifies the group as Carloni's engravings after drawings by Franciszek Smuglewicz and relates the sequence to Phaethon's appeal to Helios and the bringing of the horses of the Sun to Phaethon by the Horae.
The central scene is enclosed within an exceptionally elaborate grotesque border. Fantastic vegetal forms, flowers, miniature figures, winged heads and peacock-like ornaments alternate against the white ground, while small classical figures appear within blue medallions at each corner. Brilliantly colored in blue, green, red, orange and gold, the border provides a remarkable demonstration of the ornamental vocabulary that so fascinated Renaissance artists when these buried Roman interiors were rediscovered.
The plate comes from Vestigia delle terme di Tito e loro interne pitture, published in Rome by the antiquarian and art dealer Ludovico Mirri beginning in 1776. Mirri had obtained permission to excavate ancient rooms beneath the Esquiline Hill, then traditionally identified with the Baths of Titus, and commissioned artists to make careful records of their rapidly deteriorating painted decoration.
The drawings for the series were principally made by the Polish painter Franciszek Smuglewicz, sometimes working in conjunction with the architect and designer Vincenzo Brenna, and were subsequently translated into prints by Marco Carloni. The Smithsonian confirms that the Vestigia plates were drawn by Smuglewicz and Brenna and engraved by Carloni. More detailed modern scholarship establishes Smuglewicz's predominant role, attributing thirty-four plates exclusively to him.
The rooms were then believed to form part of the Baths of Titus, hence the title of Mirri's publication. They are now principally associated with Nero's Domus Aurea, or “Golden House,” the immense palace complex constructed following the Great Fire of Rome in A.D. 64.
Following Nero's death in A.D. 68, much of the complex was buried or incorporated into subsequent imperial construction. When its subterranean rooms were rediscovered during the Renaissance, artists descended into them as though entering caves or grotte. The fantastic painted ornament found upon their walls consequently became known as grottesche—the origin of the term “grotesque”—and profoundly influenced Renaissance and later European decorative art.
By the eighteenth century many of these ancient paintings were deteriorating rapidly. Mirri's project therefore had an importance extending far beyond its considerable decorative appeal: Smuglewicz and Brenna preserved a visual record of ancient Roman paintings at a moment when substantially more remained visible than survives today.
Of particular importance, the present plate belongs to Mirri's rare luxury hand-colored issue. The Vestigia appeared both in a conventional monochrome form and in an extraordinarily elaborate colored version, printed in outline and individually finished by hand in watercolor and gouache. Contemporary evidence indicates that approximately thirty colored sets were projected, with subscribers required to reserve the expensive colored version in advance.
Modern scholarship describes these luxury impressions as watercolor and gouache applied over washed printed outlines and notes the enormous difference in contemporary price between the two versions: the colored production cost 180 zecchini compared with only nine for the black-and-white version.
The extraordinary blue ground of the present plate is therefore much more than a later decorative embellishment. The coloring formed an integral part of Mirri's luxury publication and was intended to convey the appearance and polychromy of the ancient Roman painting itself.
The complete Vestigia was a monumental undertaking. Christie's records the original publication with an engraved dedication and title and fifty-nine numbered plates, several with folding extensions, all engraved by Carloni after Smuglewicz and Brenna.
A magnificent survival from one of the great eighteenth-century publications devoted to the rediscovery of ancient Rome—the brilliant blue ground, spirited horse and chariot, classical figures and exceptionally elaborate grotesque border making this scene from the story of Phaethon one of the most visually arresting compositions in Mirri's celebrated series.
Price: $2,750.00