Roma le Loggie di Raffaello nel Vaticano

This nineteenth-century engraving depicts the second-floor corridor of the Apostolic Palace, designed by Raphael and executed by his workshop. The pilasters and walls are covered in 'grotteschi'—fantastical ornamental patterns of hybrid figures and foliage—while the ceiling vaults contain fifty-two narrative scenes from the Old and New Testaments. A portrait bust of Raphael is visible at the far end of the perspectival hallway.

The Loggia is a landmark of the High Renaissance synthesis of Christian theology and Classical antiquity; its 'grotteschi' motifs, rediscovered in the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, provided a foundational visual vocabulary for later Mannerist and Hermetic artists interested in the intersection of nature and artifice. It represents the Neoplatonic effort to harmonize the ancient Roman aesthetic with sacred scripture under the patronage of Pope Leo X.