The column capitals and bases of Master G.A. with the Caltrop : prints and the architectural culture of Renaissance Rome

The architectural prints of Master G.A. with the Caltrop, an unknown mid-sixteenth century engraver who produced a set of over thirty prints of column capitals and bases, exemplify the architectural culture of early Cinquecento Rome and are some of earliest prints to emerge out that culture. Produced sometime in the second half of the 1530s, the prints of Master G.A. with the Caltrop consist of engravings of decorated capitals and bases illustrated in perspective, often with measurements and inscribed text. They espouse no clear body of theory, nor do they correspond to the work of a specific Cinquecento
architect. Instead, as this thesis will demonstrate, the Master G.A. prints emerged out of a
variety of early sixteenth-century Roman architectural developments. These developments
not only shaped architectural drawings, illustrated treatises, and the built environment, but
also individual prints of column capitals and bases that in turn were the first media to widely
disseminate the revolutionary architectural language of Renaissance Rome.

Digitization of this thesis was made possible by a generous grant from the Jefferson Trust, 2015.

Thesis originally deposited on 2016-02-18 in version 1.28 of Libra. This thesis was migrated to Libra2 on 2017-03-23 16:33:50.