Giuseppe Vasi who studied under Sebastiano Conca, a master of painting, and Pier Leone Ghezzi, the graphic master, went to become an architectural engraver, etcher, draftsman and archaeologist. Giuseppe is known as the master of the veduta, a popular Venetian genre, which depicted the images of the everyday urban landscape. Paintings, drawings and engravings were created in the veduta genre.

The main work of Giuseppe Vasi”s life — the “Magnificence of ancient and modern Rome project” — was created in the veduta genre. It features 10 volumes of genuine Roman architecture, a collection of engravings, which he worked on during 14 years, from 1747 to 1761. Giuseppe Vasi was an accurate cartographer who recorded Rome in the Baroque period with the edition, in fact, becoming a historical document. The “Magnificence” was intended as a kind of guide to Rome for visitors. It included about 200 sheets featuring squares, basilicas, churches, palaces, bridges, streets, parks and gardens. Vasi created dozens of additional illustrations for his collection, frontispieces — drawings before the first page of the book, and schmuztituls — pages preceding the book section.

After completing this work, Giuseppe Vasi was mainly engaged in engraving. In 1765, “The Great Avenue of Alma in Rome”, a grandiose-size sheet (the engraving’s dimensions are 102.5×261.8 cm) was published. 12 plates depicted a bird’s-eye view of the entire city. In 1771 and 1781 Vasi produced two engraved maps of Rome. The master died a year later, in 1782.