{"id":74964,"date":"2014-08-05T18:37:58","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T22:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=74964"},"modified":"2014-08-05T20:15:13","modified_gmt":"2014-08-06T00:15:13","slug":"alfabeto-pittorico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/05\/alfabeto-pittorico\/","title":{"rendered":"Alfabeto Pittorico"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"s\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sploid, \u201ca new blog about awesome stuff\u201d (as opposed to the many blogs about unawesome stuff), drew my attention to Antonio Basoli\u2019s Alfabeto Pittorico<\/em>, a series of architectural-alphabetical engravings from 1839<\/a>\u2014twenty-four letters and an ampersand. (Sorry, J<\/em> and W<\/em>.) These are works of pure fabulism\u2014Basoli, a painter and designer from Bologna, created sets and curtains for the theater, and his alphabet has a lot of stagecraft to it. Every letter looks like a scene from another play. Part of the fun is in wondering what compelled him to make these engravings at all: Was he on some kind of precursor to LSD? Had he been dissed by an illiterate architect, against whom he sought fanciful revenge? Did he need a novel pedagogical device to teach the ABC\u2019s to his distracted children? Whatever his motive, he brought an impressive imagination to the table. His G<\/em>, for instance, is built on a Viking ship with a rabbit at its bow; K <\/em>appears to be in some sort of mosque, with people in prayer all around; S<\/em> is carved into a treacherous cliff, at the foot of which is a grave with a mourner. S<\/em>\u2014the cruelest letter.<\/p>\n

You can see the whole series here<\/a>; if you\u2019re thinking there\u2019s an Alphabet City joke to be made, I regret to inform you that the editors at Sploid have beat you to it. I thought about closing this post by spelling out PARIS REVIEW<\/em> in Basoli\u2019s letters, but life is short, and I, like you, tire of clicking. So here\u2019s TPR<\/em>: \"T\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"P\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"R\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sploid, \u201ca new blog about awesome stuff\u201d (as opposed to the many blogs about unawesome stuff), drew my attention to Antonio Basoli\u2019s Alfabeto Pittorico, a series of architectural-alphabetical engravings from 1839\u2014twenty-four letters and an ampersand. (Sorry, J and W.) These are works of pure fabulism\u2014Basoli, a painter and designer from Bologna, created sets and curtains […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2384],"tags":[14865,14866,1657,12976,9761,2783,545,14867,14868],"class_list":["post-74964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-look","tag-alfabeto-pittorico","tag-antonio-basoli","tag-architecture","tag-drawings","tag-engravings","tag-illustrations","tag-italy","tag-sploid","tag-the-alphabet"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAntonio Basoli\u2019s Alfabeto Pittorico<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dan Piepenbring on the Italian painter and designer\u2019s series of architectural-alphabetical engravings from 1839.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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