Frontispiece, from Views of Rome (Le vedute di Roma), (Primary Title)
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian, 1720 - 1778 (Artist)
Piranesi’s second volume of Le vedute di Roma opens with an ani- mated and fantastic frontispiece. A statue of Minerva wearing a Corinthian helmet sits in the center and is surrounded by a spectacular display of Roman ruins. The two figures to Minerva’s far right—likely Remus and Romulus, the legendary founders of Rome—accentuate the behemoth scale of fallen columns and sculptures, and bursts of clouds further enhance a sense of decay. Piranesi’s tour of Roman remains is essentially a fantasy rather than a cold delineation of foreign objects from the distant past. Throughout Views of Rome, Piranesi expands upon the theme of decay with similarly dramatic effects of light and shadow that are cast on recognizable Roman buildings.
Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC
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