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• 1 2019-02-15T17:10:52-08:00 View of the Temple of Fortuna Virilis 10 Veduta del Tempio della Fortuna virile. Oggi Santa Maria Egizziaca degli Armeni plain 2021-04-24T12:37:27-07:00 Title: Veduta del Tempio della Fortuna virile. Key: Oggi Santa Maria Egizziaca degli Armeni. 1. Residui d’un’antica Fabrica chiamata dal Volgo la Casa di Pilato. 2. Ospizio della Nazione Armena. 3. Tempio di Vesta: oggi Santa Maria del Sole, vicino a questo Tempio sbocca nel Tevere la Cloaca massima. 4. Santa Maria in Cosmedin detta la Scola Greca. 5. Monte Aventino, sotto il quale si vedono i vestigj della Spelonca di Cacco. Signature: Piranesi Architetto fec(it). Signature 2: Presso l’Autore a Strada Felice nel palazzo della Trinità de’monti. As it is positioned in this volume of Piranesi’s Opere, this is the last image of a monument in central Rome. Following the view of the Temple of Vesta, it shows the same structure from a different angle, identifies it as the Temple of Vesta rather than the Temple of Cybele, and notes that it is consecrated as Santa Maria del Sole in the eighteenth century. The title and subject of the image, however, is the Temple of Fortuna Virilis (or the Temple of Portunus), whose façade nearly fills the left half of the image as its Christian cross reaches towards the top margin. The view of the Forum Boarium (or “cattle market”) by Piranesi’s mentor-turned-rival Giuseppe Vasi takes the opposite approach to the same two structures.
  
  Vasi’s view reverses Piranesi’s orientation and many elements of composition. Piranesi casts the Temple of Fortuna Virilis in sharp recession, blends foreground and middle ground, and renders the entire scene in dramatic shading. By contrast, Vasi’s view equalizes the proportions of the two temples and is neatly divided into three equal segments of foreground, middle ground, and sky. It is also clean and open, with a broad central space devoted to the sunlit street between the ancient monuments. The cart, people, and animals in the foreground are evenly-spaced and clearly-defined. Assembled tourists, marked by their tricorns and carefully poised walking-sticks, call attention to the Temple, which is otherwise shown with minimal detail and shading, the capitals of its Ionic columns more suggested than specified.  
  
  Piranesi’s image centers on the Ionic columns, and the angle compresses them into a small area and minimizes the space devoted to the engaged walls. (He also centers an image of various capitals on one of these columns in his On the Magnificence and Architecture of the Romans.) Vasi’s annotations identify the visible structures in the image, but Piranesi points to ancient structures just beyond view including the Cloaca Maxima, shown in relation to the Temple of Cybele in this view, and remains of the Caves of Cacus, a fire-breathing giant that terrorized the Aventine Hill, which is just barely visible in the distance in the background of Piranesi’s view. The contrast with Vasi’s view of the same structures highlights Piranesi’s tendency for irregularity and dramatic contrast in visual arrangement pairs and his emphasis on the presence of antiquity beyond a single image’s scope.  (JB)
  
  To see this image in the Vedute di Roma, volume 16 of Piranesi’s Opere, click here.