Mining Library Treasures

Today Rome can be considered as one of the main tourist capitals of Europe. When visiting Rome this does not come as a surprise: every corner you turn, a piece of materialized history awaits you. Judging only by the amount of selfie-stick vendors on the streets, ‘eternalizing’ one’s activities in Rome through photographs is one of the main activities of modern day tourists. Creating photographs, or rather images, as a souvenir is not a new trend, just as tourism has existed for many centuries.

Tourism on a larger scale already occurred in the seventeenth century. During this period it became common for young men to make the so-called ‘Grand Tour’: a trip around many of the cultural and artistic capitals of Europe, with Italy, and Rome in particular, as the highlight of the trip. As a souvenir, to commemorate all the historical, cultural and artistic highlights of Rome, they often bought vedute, etchings of Rome’s monuments and (urban) landscapes.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720 – 1778) is by far the most celebrated engraver of vedute. However, he was not alone, nor was he the first. In the rare books collection of the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome there are two books that sustain this. One is by Aegidius Sadeler (c. 1570 – 1629) that dates to the seventeenth century and the other by Giovanni Brun (f. 1785 – 1801), dating to the eighteenth century (figs. 1 and 2). Since there is a relatively large gap between these two books, of more or less a century, it is interesting to consider whether it is possible to detect any changes in the development of this vedute tradition. But first it is necessary to provide a little more background information.

The Grand Tour phenomenon

For centuries the city of Rome had been a place of pilgrimage and, particularly from the sixteenth century onwards, a source of inspiration for numerous architects and artists. It was however not until after the end of the Thirty Years War in 1648, when European travel became easier and safer, that the travels to Italy experienced a characteristic change, marking the beginnings of tourism as it is known today. From this point in history until the late nineteenth century a growing number of mainly men of sufficient means and rank, typically from Britain, but also most certainly from northern European countries, were expected to undertake a journey through Europe by which they concluded their education. This tour, known as the Grand Tour that generally culminated in Rome, often took several months or even years and followed a fairly standard itinerary. With the ‘Grand Tour phenomenon’ a new kind of pilgrimage, aimed at gaining intellectual and aesthetic satisfaction, was officially established and exceeded the originally predominant religious journeys.

Origin of vedute

A direct result of this Grand Tour phenomenon is the surge of tourists in Rome, which led to a rising demand for mementos. Because of their relative cheapness and easy transport, as opposed to paintings and sculptures, vedute became immensely popular among ‘grand tourists’. This was in addition to the fact that vedute were actually legal to acquire. All in all this gave rise to the many vedutisti. Aegidius Sadeler and Giovanni Brun both belong to this large collective of vedutisti.

Vedute by Aegidius Sadeler

Aegidius Sadeler (c. 1570 – 1629) was a Flemish painter and copper engraver at the court of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague. A collection of vedute by Aegidius Sadeler were published in book form in 1660 (a reissue of the same vedute of 1606), under the title: Vestigi delle antichità di Roma, Tivoli, Pozzuolo et altri luochi. It must be added however, that most of the vedute are signed excudit by a relative of him, Marco Sadeler. However it is not entirely certain whether this is warranted, because he is not known as an engraver. As is indicated by the title this copy includes a total of 50 vedute, one veduta per page, of primarily Rome, Tivoli and Pozzuolo, of which the vedute can be distinguished into two main categories. The first are vedute of antiquities, ancient ruins and monuments, such as the Colosseum (fig. 3) and the Pantheon (fig. 4). The second are vedute of (urban) landscapes, including natural phenomena (figs. 5 and 6).

Vedute by Giovanni Brun

Unfortunately not much is known about Giovanni Brun. Nevertheless we do know that he flourished from 1785 – 1801. For this reason a collection of 100 vedute, published in book form under the tilte: Raccolta delle vedute antiche della citta` di Roma e contorni, which does not include a publishing date, is still dated to the eighteenth century. Just as with the collection of vedute by Aegidius Sadeler there are two main categories to be distinguished; antiquities and (urban) landscapes. Considering the audience of vedutisti in general it is not surprising that they include quite a few of the same sights. For instance Brun’s collection also includes vedute of the Colosseum and the Pantheon (figs. 7 and 8). Even though most of the vedute depict sights in Rome, there are also a few located outside of Rome, such as the landscapes and natural phenomena in Tivoli (figs. 9 and 10).

The development and significance of vedute

As can be deducted from these two vedutisti, vedutisti in general had a great eye for detail and offered expansive views of specific places within, but also outside of the city. Because of the perfect mix of grandeur and decay the vedute invoked a certain romantic or poetic image with the beholder looking in on the monument or landscape from the outside.

When examining the two books it immediately becomes clear that there is a substantial difference in value of the different collections of vedute. That is, the book itself and the etchings are of a much better quality in Sadeler’s collection and in addition the vedute are almost four times as big. The descriptions accompanying the vedute form a second distinction between the two vedutisti. Whereas Brun only includes a small description of the sight, Sadeler on the other hand has included a much more extensive legend. Finally, as can be inferred from the vedute of the Colosseum and the Pantheon there also seems to be a slight difference in style. Namely, Sadeler’s vedute overall seem a bit more romantic, or even dramatic. But perhaps this is mainly due to the fact that Sadeler includes a lot more scenes of (urban) landscapes.

Even though it is very difficult to base any conclusions regarding the development of the vedute tradition on the basis of these two books alone, Brun’s later collection of vedute appears to be much more commercial. In itself, this nicely fits within the development of tourism, considering that the Grand Tour phenomenon reached its height in the eighteenth century.

Finally, because the vedute were so popular they highly popularized certain places, consequently influencing the itinerary of the Grand Tour. In this way they could also be seen as a guidebook, but most of all the vedute provided tangible proof for the tourist of their travels, enabling them to boast with Rome’s past glories and architectural and urban achievements and providing the highly educated grand tourists something to be left inspired by.