29 January 1778 Thursday
Vases, Candelabra, Grave Stones, Sarcophagi. Tripods, Lamps and Ancient Ornaments volume I
Two marble burial urns, a basalt vase and a base with lions.
A Ancient marble sepulchral urn, which exists in the Vatican Museum, found in the year 1748 not far from the Sepulcher of S. Elena, now commonly called Tor pignattara. This Urn represents the War of the Giants against Jupiter; where others fight by throwing stones, others are killed by Lightning B. They have legs in the shape of Serpents, to be fabled, as Children of the Earth. In its Cover C a Hero on Horseback can be seen sculpted, who with his Legion fights with good success against the Germans, to see the Trophies on the sides, and therefore it can be believed that he is a Captain of M. Aurelio, or of Trajano . This cover is with Mr. Cavaceppi. D Basalte vase with eight scenic masks around it, which serves as a baptistery in the Cathedral of Naples. It is an ancient marble urn, which is found in Rome in the courtyard of the Government Palace. F This ancient base with those two Lions beside it, and they are Chimeras, as some call them, can also be seen in Rome in the Villa Montalto.
Cav Piranesi F.
29 January 1812 Wednesday
Morning with clouds, wind light from NE. Therm. 33°, ground slightly frozen. Therm. rose to 42, about 3 a small rain began.
Employed in writing a long letter to my brother about our N...rk land at W. Fisher's 400 .... in Maryland--also one to Walter Franklin about ...... rent due from Lewis Meirs[?] for house in Southwark. Evening employed with my tenant D. Davis in comparing our accounts of the produce of the farm and what each of us have had. I am pleased that we approach very near to each other and are likely to settle and part very amicably--finding him correct in everything of which I have an account, I give him full[?] credit for all the rent.
29 January 1985
untitled
29 January 1992
(so-called) Birth of Venus in a Dream 4
29 January 1999
Eros et Thanatos
29 January 2001
munus
It is becoming more and more clear that Piranesi was well aware of Tertullian's De Spectaculis text, and indeed utilized it while planning out the Ichnographia Campus Martius. First it was the passage regarding the Equiria, and now there are passages regarding "munus", a death rite, where death games accompanied the funeral day. It is this new knowledge that explains the two circuses within the Bustum Hadriani.
Since Tertullian is a Christian convert from Paganism, it further fits that Piranesi should implicitly rather than explicitly reference Tertullian. I still have to check the 'Catalogo' to see if Piranesi actually ever does reference Tertullian, but I kind of doubt it.
29 January 2006
the environmental tipping point?
After reading the article this morning, I thought that what the Bush administration is doing is really not all the different in what architectural academia sometimes does, that is, disregard knowledge that they can't control, especially knowledge that sometimes shows architectural academia at fault. Thank God for the Internet and self-publishing, right?
Gosh, I even sometimes see that same type of behavior within architectural discussion boards. Go figure.
29 January 2008
who wants to poche?
kaleidoscopic poché
29 January 2009
lost endings
...like the fore and aft of Finnegan's Wake or the role of Sepulchrum Mariae Honorij Imp. Uxoris, Stiliconis filiae within Il Campo Marzio.
29 January 2023 Sunday
1796 Pietro Pasquale, Francesco's uncle, is sentenced to 15 years in prison.
1798 12 January: Francesco dismissed by the Swedish government. 15 February: Roman Republic proclaimed.
1799 30 September: fall of the Roman Republic. November: return of the English and Neapolitans to Rome. After "the capitulation that delivers Rome to the Anglo-Neapolitans, Francesco and Pietro, forced to flee, land in Marseilles. "They saved with all their luck only the plates engraved by their father", observes the November 1799 edition of The Philosophical Decade, while sensing that "the Piranesi will hasten to publish this interesting collection again, as soon as they arrive in Paris." 26 December: The Philosophical Decade announces the arrival of the Piranesi brothers in Paris, adding "who had the good fortune to save from the hands of the English and to bring to France the plates of their father's work."
1800 29 April: The Philosophical Decade specifies that it was the commissioner of war Walville who transported the Piranesi Chalcography from Rome to Marseille declaring himself buyer and owner to obtain authorization to embark, then transmitted by Louis-Alexandre Berthier, Minister of War for transport from Marseille to Paris. Reacting to the desire expressed by Talleyrand to see "everything done to ensure the preservation of a precious establishment," Lucien Bonaparte, Minister of the Interior, provides Francesco and Pietro "an adequate room" (the machine depot) of rue de l'Université adding "all kinds of resources for carrying out their activity." 22 December: Francesco and Pietro Piranesi fled to France with all the copper plates, but all the goods left in Rome were seized by the Neapolitan troops who entered the city: "several boxes, transported from Rome to Naples," containing "a quantity of antique vases, candelabras, drawings, manuscripts and other most precious works of art." 22 December 1800, the Piranesi brothers made heartfelt petitions, in Paris, to repossess the goods seized by Neapolitan troops.
The Trophy or Magnificent Spiral Column of marble composed of large drums on which are carved the two Dacian Wars of Trajan, raised in the middle of the large Forum, erected in honor of the same Emperor on the order of the Senate and People of Rome after his Triumph; Columna Antonina
High relief of the same pedestal (in two branches).
Stylobates marble consecration Emp. Antoninus Pius, and Faustina his wife
1774-9
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