Giovanni Volpato and Louis Ducros Baths of Caracalla ca. 1780 hand-colored etching Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Giovanni Volpato and Louis Ducros Interior of the Baths of Caracalla ca. 1780 hand-colored etching Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Sonnet 64
When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced
The rich proud cost of outworn buried age,
When sometime lofty towers I see down rased,
And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;
When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
And the firm soil win of the wat'ry main,
Increasing store with loss and loss with store;
When I have seen such interchange of state,
Or state itself confounded to decay,
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate
That Time will come and take my love away.
This thought is as a death, which cannot choose
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.
– William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Giovanni Volpato and Louis Ducros Arch of Septimius Severus ca. 1780 hand-colored etching British Museum |
Giovanni Volpato and Louis Ducros Arch of Titus ca. 1780 hand-colored etching Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Giovanni Volpato and Louis Ducros Interior of the Colosseum ca. 1780 hand-colored etching British Museum |
Giovanni Volpato and Louis Ducros Temple of Concord ca. 1780 hand-colored etching British Museum |
Giovanni Volpato and Louis Ducros Temple of Jupiter Stator ca. 1780 hand-colored etching British Museum |
Giovanni Volpato and Louis Ducros Temple of Peace ca. 1780 hand-colored etching British Museum |
from Caelica
When all this All doth passe from age to age,
And revolution in a circle turne,
Then heavenly Justice doth appeare like rage,
The Caves doe roare, the very Seas doe burne,
Glory growes darke, the Sunne becomes a night,
And makes this great world feele a greater might.
When Love doth change his seat from heart to heart,
And worth about the wheele of Fortune goes,
Grace is diseas'd, desert seemes overthwart,
Vowes are forlorne, and truth doth credit lose,
Chance then gives Law, Desire must be wise,
And looke more wayes than one, or lose her eyes.
My age of joy is past, of woe begunne,
Absence my presence is, strangenesse my grace,
With them that walke against me, is my Sunne:
The wheele is turn'd, I hold the lowest place,
What can be good to me since my love is,
To doe my harme, content to doe amisse?
– Fulke Greville (1554-1628)
Giovanni Volpato and Louis Ducros Terrace of the Campidoglio ca. 1780 hand-colored etching British Museum |
Giovanni Volpato and Louis Ducros Garden of Palazzo Colonna ca. 1780 hand-colored etching Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Giovanni Volpato and Louis Ducros Garden of Villa Pamphili ca. 1780 hand-colored etching Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Giovanni Volpato and Louis Ducros Villa Farnese ca. 1780 hand-colored etching Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Giovanni Volpato and Louis Ducros Villa Montalto Negroni ca. 1780 hand-colored etching Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Giovanni Volpato and Louis Ducros Villa Borghese ca. 1780 hand-colored etching Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |