After the volume’s first image and its introduction to Piranesi as author and creator, this second frontispiece confronts the viewer with a bombastic display of detail. On this double-page sheet, one of the largest images of the volume, Piranesi’s overwhelming visual violence is an attempt to impress both his prospective audience and his intended beneficiary to whom the image might, as its given title suggests, be dedicated. This is the third version of three. Although the importance of the story of patronage connected to the first two versions, which could rival any melodrama series of misunderstandings and revenge or a French feuilleton, should not be underestimated, it tends to overshadow the content of the print itself.  

In this image, Piranesi displays his extensive knowledge of antiquities by combining architecture, construction, spolia, and fragments of maps into a congested scene in which the viewer's eye has nowhere to land. The fantastical architecture is reminiscent of the style of the Capricci of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770) and the architectural structures of Piranesi’s own Carceri series. The architectural structure and visual details of the image deserve close attention. As beholders, we are first drawn to the text on the right that is part of a huge stone wall, which appears to be part of an aqueduct topped by a monumental arch. Once we have processed these structural elements, we discover more interesting details, such as a subterranean location under the bridge where a figure is sailing in a little boat (close-up below, L) or on top of the bridge, where figures are leaning or pointing forward (close-up below, R). 
In line with the function of the frontispiece as a preview to the work that follows, these details, which can easily be overlooked in such a busy image, can also be seen as preparation for what follows in the volumes of Le Antichità Romane (Calè 2019, 29). As the first frontispiece, in the first volume of a total of four, this image is a clear introduction to all four and the first in particular, with its views, monuments, and especially its emphasis on ancient Rome’s water management systems. For example, the human figures who sail underneath the bridge and point atop it resemble those in the frontispiece in Volume IV, as well as others in plates IV, XII, XVI and XXI. Additionally, Piranesi justifies himself as the author and creator of these four volumes with other details: his studies of tombs in volume two, his play with the idea of Rome’s Marble Plan, and a reference to his earlier publications, as with the armor at the lower center, which recalls his Trofei di Ottaviano Augusto. These allusions ultimately lead back to his Opere varie di architettura, prospettive, grotteschi, antichità, from which he recycles his Ponte Trionfale.  

In the foreground, the text is presented on a relief sculpture facing the bridge structure. It introduces the intended beneficiary, as Piranesi knew that his new project on Roman antiquities required him to attract a wealthy patron, such as those to whom he had sold his previous work. The story of patronage of the illustrious James Caulfeild (1728-1799), the Earl of Charlemont, whom Piranesi convinced with the help the first edition of this dedication print, proved too good to be true, and Piranesi denounced him with the revised frontispiece in which he destroyed Caulfeild’s coat of arms, in accordance with the Roman custom of removing the names of condemned people from monuments (damnatio memoriae) (Minor 2021). Fortunately for Piranesi, Le Antichità Romane was a commercial success. This version of the dedicatory frontispiece was the result of Francesco Piranesi republishing his father’s work in 1784 and 1787. Francesco was successful in finding a benefactor for his version in Gustav III of Sweden (1746-1792), for whom he altered the dedication, changing the text and the coat of arms, but leaving the rest of the image intact. 
Just as the story of patronage behind the first two versions of this image illuminates their significance, the story behind this dedication expands our understanding of Piranesi's posthumous influence. The King of Sweden, a prominent monarch and a patron of arts, was a logical and strategic choice. It was thanks to the mediation of the Swedish nobleman and master of ceremonies to the king, Carl Frederik Fredenheim (1748-1803), that Francesco was appointed Gustav III’s art consultant in April 1783. The two had been corresponding since 1782, and their relationship grew to the point where Francesco was Fredenheim's assistant during an excavation in Rome in 1788, as Fredenheim’s travel journal reveals. After becoming an art consultant, Francesco began making dedications to Gustav III, as in his publication Il Teatro di Ercolano (1783). The two first met when Gustav III visited Rome between December 1873 and January 1784 (Teolato 2011, 728-9). As further testimony to this relationship, Francesco is depicted in the background of a 1785 painting by Bénigne Gagneraux (1756-1795) showing Pope Pius VI (1717-1799) and Gustav III in the Vatican galleries (now in the collection of the National Museum in Sweden; a copy was made for Pope Pius VI by the same artist, now in the collection of the National Gallery of Prague). As an art consultant, Francesco shipped works of art to Sweden upon request and sold antiques directly to the king. Several objects are preserved to this day in Stockholm after their arrival there in September 1785. Francesco, it is fair to say, found himself a more trustworthy patron than his father had for Le Antichità Romane. (ML) 

To see this image in the first volume of Le Antichità Romane, volume 1 of Piranesi’s Opere, click here.