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• 1 2021-03-30T11:16:08-07:00 Plan of the Baths of Diocletian 7 Pianta delle Terme di Diocleziano plain 2024-10-25T12:19:28-07:00 PIANTA delle Terme di Diocleziano, Il primo loro piano fu riempiuto di scarichi delle rovine di una parte delle fabbriche del piano superiore, le quali, perchè minacciavano rovina, furon fatte demolireda Sisto V. La tinta più nera indica gli avanzi ch’ esistono, e la più leggiera il supplimento da me fattovi come nelle altre tavole.; 1. Argine di Tarquinio al pari di questo piano. 2. Strada selciata che porta ai tre ingressi delle Terme. 3. Vestibolo. 4. Portico, il quale circondava la gran piazza, e conduceva agli’ingressi della Palestra. 5. Vestiboli degli atrj. 6. Tablini. 7. Atrj del Sisto scoperti. 8. Magnifico e vastissimo Sisto, diviso in tre portici, e maggiore di tutti tra le Terme. 9. Luoghi ove si preparavano gli Atleti, e gli altri che si esercitavano nel Sisto. 10. Cavedi Scoperti per dar lume a’ portici della Palestra. 11. Atrio della Palestra, overo Dieta per uso di chi veniva da questa parte. 12. Stanza degli Atleti con bagno. 13. Alveo, o fossa. 14. Fornelli per riscaldare la stanza predetta. 15. Accademie. 16. Esedre a similitudine di portici per ricovero del Popolo. 17. Area con sedili in prospetto per comodo degli spettatori de’ giuochi. 18. Portico che circondava i sedili suddetti fabbricato in maggiore elevazione de’ medesimi. 19. Biblioteca greca. 20. Biblioteca latina l’una e l’altra fatte quivi trasportare da Diocleziano dal Foro di Trajano. 21. Diversi emicicli, o accademie per uso de’ letterati. 22. Luoghi ove s’ esercitava la gioventù. 23. Luoghi per riporvi gli strumenti necessari, e le vesti degli Atleti, e per abitazione degli ufiziali. 24. Abbaini per dar lume al piano inferiore. 25. Tepidario delle Terme. 26. Tempio d’Esculapio. 27. Tempio della Salute.; Piranesi Archit(etto) dis(egnò) inc(ise). PLAN of the Baths of Diocletian. The first floor was filled with fragments of ruins from a part of the buildings on the upper floor. These buildings were demolished by Sixtus V because they were in danger of collapsing. The darker ink indicates the extant remains and the lighter ink indicates my additions, as in the other plates.; 1. Embankment by Tarquin equal to the height of this level. 2. Cobblestone street that leads to the three entrances of the Baths. 3. Vestibule. 4. Portico that surrounded the great square and led to the entrance of the Gymnasium. 5. Vestibules of the atria. 6. Dining rooms. 7. Open Atria of the Xystus. 8. Magnificent and incredibly vast Xystus, divided into three porticoes, and the largest of all the Baths. 9. Places where the Athletes prepared themselves, and where others exercised in the Xystus. 10. Open Courtyard, illuminating the porticoes of the Gymnasium. 11. Atrium of the Gym, or rather Assembly Hall for the use of people coming from this side. 12. Room with a bath for the athletes. 13. Riverbed, or pit. 14. Furnaces for heating the aforementioned room. 15. Academies. 16. Exedra, similar to the porticoes, that provided shelter to the People. 17. Area with seats, shown in plan view, for the comfort of the spectators of the games. 18. Portico that surrounded the aforementioned seats, built in higher elevation. 19. Greek Library. 20. Latin Library, both of which were brought here by Diocletian from the Forum of Trajan. 21. Various hemicycles, or academies, for the use of the scholars. 22. Place where the youths exercised. 23. Place where the necessary equipment and clothes of the Athletes were held, as well as the location of the housing for officials. 24. Attic rooms illuminating the lower floor. 25. Tepidarium of the Baths. 26. Temple of Aesculapius. 27. Temple of Salus.; Drawn and engraved by the Architect Piranesi.

  This image of the Baths of Diocletian is fourth in a group of five architectural plans set against illusionistic surfaces and materials. Piranesi’s plans at the end of this volume each employ various layered media, particularly paper and stone, against a background, rendered by thin hatched lines, that shows cardinal directions. Here, atop the background is a sheet of paper displaying a scale, and on it a second, curling sheet with a carefully numbered plan. Below these three layered surfaces is a lengthy caption that identifies atria, dining rooms, gymnasia, porticoes, and vestibules. This visual arrangement frames the “severe linearity” (Yegul 118) of the thermal complex itself within Piranesi’s own linear forms of rectilinear shapes and etching lines. 
  
  But just as the curling paper edge below the plan hints at Piranesi’s tendency to mingle illusion with objectivity, the volume sets this image within the excessively elaborate network of cross-references that Heather Hyde Minor has traced (2015, 27-39). In the Index to the Map of Rome, Piranesi notes that these baths are shown, in the View of the Remains of the Baths of Diocletian, occupied by churches and convents and, in this plan, instead, “secondo l’antica loro esistenza” [according to their ancient state] (Index to the Map of Rome, no. 249). In the veduta, the baths appear in their post-medieval state, repurposed for the Catholic church. Here, however, the extant remains are filled in with what Piranesi, as well as others (including Giovanni Battista Nolli in his large map of Rome), takes to be their absent elements, and his image recreates their original state through his use of etching techniques that cause the paper to take on darker and lighter tints of black ink. Many of Piranesi’s later images combine vedute and plans, sometimes with sections and details, within single visual fields. In this case, though, the volume’s elaborate cross-references connect the veduta and the plan in order to offer a spatially and temporally comprehensive account of the thermal complex. (JB)