An Early Diorama: Campo Santo di Pisa, 1829 Ranieri... Lot 1

An Early Diorama: Campo Santo di Pisa, 1829 Ranieri Grassi (active 1829-30s) Large engraving, 19x31 cm, hand colored by the artist, credit and title printed in the lower margin under the view: “Ranieri Grassi dis e incise, Veduta interna del Campo Santo di Pisa” First edition of the Veduta interna, reprinted several times after 1831 in reduced format. "Campo Santo" can be literally translated as "holy field", because it is said to have been built around a shipload of sacred soil from Golgotha, brought back to Pisa from the Third Crusade by Ubaldo Lanfranchi, archbishop of Pisa in the 12th century. The walls of the vast structure were covered in over 2600 meters squared of frescoes, a greater expanse than the Sistine Chapel. The earliest, attributed to Francesco Traini, were painted 1336/1341 in the south-western corner, the last by Piero di Puccio (up) and Benozzo Gozzoli, 1389/1391.