Plate IX from Loggie di Rafaele nel Vaticano

These colorful engravings after designs by Raphael for the famous Loggia in the Papal apartments at the Vatican provide an assortment of the most popular decorative elements used by designers and architects for centuries. The fantastic animals, architectural pediments, borders and fret work, ornamental swags of fruit and flowers, masks and rosettes, were inspired by ancient Roman wall paintings, and reinterpreted by the Renaissance master and his assistants. Eighteenth century artists, inspired by Piranesi to look to antiquity for design sources, adapted these motifs in the creation of the Neoclassical style.