April 
192 3 
67 
{Below) In this 
engraving of the 
Ponte Salarino 
we see Piranesi’s 
romantic and 
accurate art 
An example of the 
bird’s-eye print is 
found in this view 
of Hampton Court 
in 1 774, when 
W r e n’s additions 
to the palace were 
comparatively new 
(Below) Piran¬ 
esi’s feeling for 
the romantic is 
shown in this 
study of ruins 
at Tivoli 
Nantes; and Perelle (the name covers two 
generations of engravers, father and sons, 
whose work is practically indistinguish¬ 
able). 
Lepautre was an inventor of architectural 
ornament rather than an architectural 
draughtsman in the ordinary sense of the 
word. His plates represent 
designs for ceilings, friezes, 
chimney-pieces, urns, all su¬ 
perbly imagined in the spirit 
of the most extravagant ba¬ 
roque. For the “Cabinet du 
Roi” he also engraved topo¬ 
graphical plates representing 
battles and sieges. 
Marot’s work is not un¬ 
like that of Lepautre. At 
his best—as in his engraved 
designs for ceilings and in 
his finest topographical 
plates—he is almost superior 
to Lepautre. But there is no 
doubt that his skill declined 
after he left France: the 
court of the Prince of Orange 
did not provide the stimulus 
to swaggering invention 
given by the court of the 
Grand Monarch. Marot is 
also known as a designer of 
decorative furniture and many interiors. 
With Perelle we come to architectural 
drawing of the topographical kind. His 
specialty was the bird's-eye view. His 
plates of such famous French chateaux as 
Chambord and Vaux le Vicomte are per¬ 
haps the most perfect things of their kind 
ever executed. In these beautiful engrav¬ 
ings Perelle gives us not dnly an exact and 
map-like description of the houses and their 
gardens; he also catches the whole atmos¬ 
phere and feeling of hi$ subjects. His 
bird’s-eye views are true works of art, whose 
beauty is enhanced by his fine drawing and 
grouping of figures. 
It was in imitation of Pe¬ 
relle that the English engrav¬ 
ers of the 18th Century made 
their elaborate topographical 
views which were so popular 
at the time and are of such 
great historical interest at 
the present day. 
The earliest of these was 
Kip, a Dutchman by birth, 
who engraved from the draw¬ 
ings of another Dutchman, 
Knyff. Kip’s volumes, 
“Britannia Illustrata”, are 
of the highest interest, though 
they have, compared with 
(Continued on page 132) 
Topographical work of 
the 18th Century is well 
illustrated by this bird’s- 
eye view of Deane, 
an old English estate 
