Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720-1778), "Veduta della Villa dell'Eccellentissimo Signor Alesandro Albani fuori de Porta Salaria", "View of the Villa of His Eminence Cardinal Alessandro Albani, outside the Porta Salaria", etching with drypoint, probably from a lifetime Roman edition of Vedute di Roma, titled Roma, titled lower right, signed lower left "Cavaliere Piranesi in.", 20 1/4 in. x 27 3/4 in Note: Alessandro Albani (1692-1779) was a member of a powerful ecclesiastical and military family from Urbino, including Pope Clement XI, Alessandro's uncle. Albani's villa served as a weekend retreat situated outside the Aurelian Walls on the Via Salaria Antica, leading from the city to Porto d'Ascoli on the Adriatic. The area was a popular locale for palatial estates of Rome's ruling families. Not only a great collector, connoisseur, and arbiter of taste in his own right, Albani also served as a de facto antiquarian and dealer often abusing his papal powers to export significant pieces throughout Europe with clients including Augustus the Strong, the Elector of Saxony. The principal view selected by Piranesi in the engraving is the "Casino", constructed in 1745 by Carlo Marchionni to house the cleric's renowned and extensive collection of classical and Egyptian antiquities. At the far right of the middle ground is the famed fountain with Roman marbles of Atlas supporting a giant Egyptian granite Tazza, while the grounds and garden are adorned with examples of Greek and Roman statuary. Reference: Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste And the Antique (Yale University Press, 1988), pp. 62, 64-67.