154 ~ BATHS OF EMPEROR TITUS LAYOUT PLAN DESIGN ~ 1910 Architecture Art Print

Description: EXACT TITLE ON PRINT : THERMES DE TITUS A ROME (TRANSLATION: THERMAL BATHS OF TITUS AT ROME) ARTIST: A. Leclere PRINT INFORMATION PRINT DATE: This lithograph was printed in 1910 from an original restoration work completed by the artist in 1872. PRINT DIMENSIONS: 12 inches by 17 inches PRINT CONDITION: excellent condition, specifically as shown in this detailed scan. PRINT TYPE: Heliogravure print (see description of process in our Glossary). PAPER TYPE: Thick rag stock cardboard type paper. PAYMENT INFORMATION : Visa & Mastercard through Paypal. Please email us if you have any questions. All returns accepted! BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND HISTORY ABOUT THE SUBJECT OF THIS PRINT : Still visible from the square on which the colosseum stands is the front of the Baths of Titus, which were constructed from 79 to 81 AD over the infamous golden palace of Nero, the Domus Aurea. Built by Titus in great haste at the time of the dedication of the Colosseum, the baths were opened with magnificent games These baths were near the Colosseum and within the precinct of Nero's Domus Aurea, but no actual buildings of the domus seem to have been removed to make room for them. In 238 A.D. some restoration was evidently contemplated, and incidental references to them occur in Martial and in later inscriptions. Early in the sixteenth century Julius II brought to the Vatican a large granite basin, which had been seen on the site of these thermae in 1450; it was buried in 1565 by Pius IV, but dug up again by Paul V, and still stands in the Cortile di Belvedere. Later on, a basin of porphyry was found here and given by Ascanio Colonna to Julius III. It is now in the Sala Rotonda of the Vatican. In the same century Palladio made a plan of the ruins then existing. These ruins were afterwards almost entirely destroyed, although some meagre remains have recently been found, and until 1895 the name was generally applied to the Baths of Trajan, though the truth was detected by De Romanis and Piale in the 'twenties of last century. The baths were situated just west of the later Trajan Baths on the edge of the slope overhanging the Colosseum, with the same orientation as the domus Aurea, and occupied a nearly rectangular area, about 105 by 120 metres. The façade and principal entrance were on the north side. On the south side a wide flight of steps led down to the paved area around the Colosseum, 18 metres below, where there are traces of a porticus which may have belonged to the approach to the baths or have surrounded a large part of the Colosseum area. The arrangement of apartments seems to have been somewhat like that of the Baths of NEro, with the main hall (the earliest example) in the centre of the north side flanked by colonnaded courts, and a caldarium projecting out from the south side. INFORMATION ON THE HISTORY OF THIS PRINT: Louis XIV, the King of France, was a generous patron of the arts. During his long reign (1643-1715), he sought to raise standards of taste and sophistication in the Arts and so a number of royal academies were founded, including the Academy of Painting and Sculpture (1648), the Academie de France in Rome (1663) and the foundation of the Academie royale d'Architecture (1671). This formalized a system for the training of French architects and by elevating artisans to academicians, the power of the medieval guilds was eroded and centered instead on the patronage of the king. Subsidized by the state, the Academy of Architecture was free to those, aged fifteen to thirty, who could pass the entrance examinations. By the nineteenth century, students were obliged to complete a number of increasingly demanding concours or competitions, the most prestigious of which was the Grand Prix de Rome, a rigorous annual examination (a first competition was in 1702, then 1720, then yearly) that provided the winner advanced study at the French Academy in Rome at the Villa Medici, where classical antiquities could be seen at first hand. Each year, for the four or five years they were in Rome, the students, supported financially with pensions, (hence their name of pensionnaires) were required to produce two sets of drawings, or envois, of Rome's ancient and medeival monuments: the état actuel, which was an exacting representation of the extant state, documenting the site with the precision of an archaeologist, and the état restauré, a more imaginary and often idealized restoration including the rendering of shade and shadow, which was accompanied by a written description of the monument's antiquity and construction. Often times, the views of the architects differed from those of the archaeologists in that the students wanted to use such buildings as inspiration for their own work, and hence reconstructed them omplete and coloured, often at the disagreement of the archaeologists. The drawings submitted for the annual Grand Prix de Rome were on themes chosen by the Academy. The subjects set are indeed grand in scale and often in reach: triumphal arches (1730, 1747, 1763), palaces (1752, 1772, 1791, 1804, 1806), city squares and markets (1733, 1792, 1801), town halls (1742, 1787, 1813), law courts (1782, 1821) museums (1779) and educational institutions including libraries (1775, 1786, 1789, 1800, 1807, 1811, 1814, 1815, 1820) - all schemes for the promotion of civilization as the ancients would have understood the term. Stylistically, the entries usually share common characteristics: a grand Roman manner, with columns and orders, vaults and polychromy; an insistent and regular geometry, usually the square or the circle but sometimes the triangle; a penchant for the hemicycle, the propylaea and the pyramid; and finally a desire to impress by symmetry and the contrast between plain and decorated surfaces. These ground plans (a drawing projected on a horizontal plane) and elevations (which was projected on a vertical plane) first were shown in Rome at the French Academy and then were forwarded to Paris to be shown to the members of the Academie des Beaux Arts, one of the constituent bodies of the Institut de France, which was responsible for the Rome Academy. They were also exhibited to the public in Paris. In the fourth year, after a thorough study of architectural detail, the student presented a complete restoration of a classical building. Although drawings of ancient classical ornament had been made for generations before the winners of the Grand Prix de Rome descended on the Villa Medici, the young Frenchmen were the first to go about the work systematically. The drawings were limited to, and solidly based on, the carefully studied remains. Further, their presentation in formal academic renderings offers more information than could possibly be supplied even by a large number of photographs. Appreciation of these drawings cannot be complete without some explanation of the technique of India Ink was rendering. Extreme discipline is required to produce these finely studied works of art. Even the simplest drawings require painstaking care and preparation before any of the washes are applied. Great skill is required to do the neccesary linework. All of the information must be recorded before tone is even thought about. The drawing is then meticulously transferred in ink to the watercolor paper and the paper mounted on a board. The rendering itself requires infinite care and patience. Each tone is built up through many faint layers of wash so that the ink seems to be in the paper rather than on it. Each surface is graded so that the final effect of the drawing is that of an object in light and space, with a sense of atmosphere surrounding it.

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End Time: 2025-01-29T15:10:15.000Z

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