Le conchiglie dell’‘etruscologo’ Piranesi

On January 7, 1769, the engraver and “Venetian architect” Giovan Battista Piranesi dedicated to his patron and nephew of Clemente XIII, cardinal Giovanbattista Rezzonico, the catalog of old-fashioned decoration Diverse maniere d’adornare i cammini … derived from Egyptian, Etruscan and Greek architecture with an apologetic reasoning in defense of Egyptian and Tuscan architecture. Plate i of the collection is a set of 31 shells or “testacei marini”. These shells are copied from the Index testarum conchyliorum quae adseruantur in museo Nicolai Gualtieri, published in 1742 in Florence.