Landscape with Temple, Obelisk and Aqueduct
Medium
Pen and brown ink on ivory laid paper, laid down on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
15 × 21.5 cm (5 15/16 × 8 1/2 in.)
Classification
pen and ink drawings
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
2937
Art Historical Context
Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, Italian artist active in 17th-century Rome known as "Il Bolog," crafted this enchanting *Landscape with Temple, Obelisk and Aqueduct using pen and brown ink on ivory laid paper The drawing evokes the grandeur of ancient Rome through an imaginative composition blending a classical temple, towering obelisk, and aqueduct amidst a serene, idealized landscape. Such capriccios—fantastical assemblages of ruins—were popular among Baroque-era artists, reflecting a deep fascination with antiquity during the Counter-Reformation and early Grand Tour era. Grimaldi's masterful ...
About the Artist
Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi · 1606–1680
Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi (1606–1680), known as "Il Bolognese," was an Italian painter, draughtsman, and etcher whose career exemplifies the wide influence of the Bolognese school of landscape painting in seventeenth-century Rome. Born in Bologna, Grimaldi trained in the tradition of the Carracci, whose idealized approach to landscape — blending careful observation of nature with classical compo...