The Ancient Walls of Rome
Giuseppe Vasi, ca. 1754
$235
Print check at 24 x 16 in: 371 dpi, excellent. Trimmed 2.2% to the shape of the print.
Shipping to a US address: $25.90 for this piece, from the print room in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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Giuseppe Vasi ran the printmaking workshop where a young Piranesi trained before eclipsing him in fame — Vasi's own ten-volume Delle magnificenze di Roma antica e moderna (On the Magnificence of Ancient and Modern Rome, 1747–1761) mapped the city street by street, monument by monument, with a documentary thoroughness Piranesi's more theatrical Vedute never attempted. This plate records a stretch of Rome's ancient defensive walls along the Tiber, boats and fishermen working the river in the foreground while the fortifications — built and rebuilt from the Republican era through the late Empire — stand behind. What to notice: where Piranesi dramatized ruin, Vasi inventoried it — this plate reads closer to a field survey than a stage set, the corrective context for how much invention his more famous student later added.
- Maker
- Giuseppe Vasi
- Date
- ca. 1754
- Medium of the original
- Plate
- Original held by
- David Rumsey Map Collection · via Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons
- Credit
- David Rumsey Map Collection · via Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00301
| Picture | 24 x 16 in |
|---|---|
| Outside size | 25.6 x 17.6 in |
| Depth | 0.9 in (22 mm) |
| Weight | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]] |
| Hanging | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]] |
| Material | Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing |
| Made in | Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi |
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | dpi | Grade | How it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 x 8 in | 742 | Excellent | Trimmed 2.2% |
| 18 x 12 in | 495 | Excellent | Trimmed 2.2% |
| 24 x 16 in | 371 | Excellent | Trimmed 2.2% |
| 30 x 20 in | 297 | Excellent | Trimmed 2.2% |
| 36 x 24 in | 247 | Excellent | Trimmed 2.2% |
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 10 x 8 in | Wrong shape: a 18% crop |
| 14 x 11 in | Wrong shape: a 17% crop |
| 16 x 12 in | Wrong shape: a 13% crop |
| 20 x 16 in | Wrong shape: a 18% crop |
| 24 x 18 in | Wrong shape: a 13% crop |
| 30 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 18% crop |
| 40 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 13% crop |
| 48 x 36 in | Wrong shape: a 13% crop |
| 60 x 40 in | 148 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 9,111 x 5,943 px, srgb
- Tone
- Darks 71, lights 231 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 37.94
- Notes
- Neutrals lean warm (yellow): the paper and varnish of the original, kept as scanned
Shipping for this piece to a US address is $25.90, the print room’s own rate, charged per piece. Checkout shows the total before you pay.
Every piece is printed after you order it, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ships from there. For now we ship to US addresses only.
A piece that arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size is replaced at our cost. The details: shipping and returns and replacements.
Cabinet of Curiosities
The old world’s book of wonders, for your wall.
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