St. Peter's Fountains and Obelisk, from Bernini's Colonnade
Rudolph Ruzicka American, born Czechoslovakia
Related author Fanny Davenport Rogers MacVeagh American
Not on view
Looking through Bernini's Colonnade we see two fountains and the obelisk on St. Peter's piazza. This is a proof of one of 43 wood engravings that Ruzicka made to illustrate "Fountains of Papal Rome," 1915, where this image appears on page 9. He also described the basilica in a smaller image (MMA, proof, 18.25.44).
Ruzicka went to Rome in 1913 with the manuscript of Mrs. Charles MacVeagh's "Fountains of Papal Rome" in hand as a guide. When published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York in 1915 the book contained fourteen full-page images and twenty-nine page headings and vignettes. The artist later described the book as a "quite remarkable work...still the most authoritative book there is on the subject in the English language."
