St Peter's basilica.

Etching, 70 x 64 cm, 2 sheets of thick laid paper glued together, signed in the plate at lower right corner "Mattheus Greuter sculpsit" (large horizontal and vertical folding creases, paper sl. toned, some brown foxing throughout, brown damp stain at lower left edge and corner, sl. soiled, some sm. tears in margins).

Large elevation of the facade of St. Peter's Basilica, printed during the building process itself. In 1606 Pope Paul V commissioned Carlo Maderno to complete the nave and facade of the seat of Christianity. The building facade was completed in 1616 and the present etching is most likely based on Maderno's architectural drawings, as Giovanni Battista de' Rossi was granted the Papal privilege (text in lower left margin) to publish it. The print quickly became part of the "Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae", a printing project which was continued well into the seventeenth century by the de' Rossi family.