“Pietro Paolo Drei’s Flower Mosaics Revealed in Print”

Giffin, Erin (1. March 2021): “Pietro Paolo Drei’s Flower Mosaics Revealed in Print”. In: Print Quarterly, Vol. 38

Abstract

Uninterpreted inscriptions incised across a pair of etchings by the Flemish artist Pieter de Bailliu reveal an ephemeral, decorative tradition once practiced in the heart of Rome. These prints, together with a third by de Bailliu, shed light on the ephemeral flower mosaics from which the artist worked. This paper revises preconceived notions regarding the little-understood early modern decorative tradition and the artistic oeuvre of Benedetto and Pietro Paolo Drei. De Bailliu’s prints reveal the large-scale ephemera once decorating the seventeenth-century floors of new Saint Peter’s Basilica, and the debt modern scholarship owes to prints that reconstruct lost, altered, or striped early modern interiors.

• Item Type: Journal article
• EU Funded Grant Agreement Number: 680192
• EU Projects: Horizon 2020 > ERC Grants > ERC Starting Grant > ERC Grant 680192: SACRIMA - The Normativity of Sacred Images in Early Modern Europe
• Form of publication: Publisher's Version
• Keywords: Pietro Paolo Drei, Benedetto Drei, Pieter de Bailliu, flower mosaics, Arcimboldo, Saint Peter's Basilica, ephemera, cult practice, bronze Saint Peter statue, architecture
• Faculties: History and Art History > Department of Art History > Art History
• Subjects: 200 Religion > 270 History of Christianity; 700 Arts and recreation > 720 Architecture; 700 Arts and recreation > 760 Graphic arts
• Language: English