This page was created by Diem Dao. The last update was by Jeanne Britton.
Ruins of a Sculpture Gallery in Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli
To populate what is assumed to be a sculpture gallery with human figures engaged in varied postures, stances, and gestures is to suggest a comparison between living life forms and immobile statuary, a comparison that in this print is appropriately framed by “the picturesque contrast” of the cross-vault delicately overgrown with botanical life (Pinto and MacDonald 258). As such, while the image’s key records works of decorative art that, today, no longer exist, its visual comparison between art (statues, architecture) and life (human beings, plants) makes it “an essay on the transience of the works of mankind” (Campbell 585). It is also an examination of surface and depth, both in terms of architectural structure and ornament as well as visual composition and image annotation. (JB)
To see this image in the Vedute di Roma, volume 17 of Piranesi’s Opere, click here.