This page was created by Avery Freeman. The last update was by Jeanne Britton.
Plan of the Lower Floor of the Palace of the Caesars, believed to be the Palatine Baths
Beyond the differences in the visual styles of father and son, perhaps the most notable feature of this and the previous plan of the Domus Augustana—this image is of the lower floor, thought to be thermal baths—is the scale. Ruins tended to prompt either creative inspiration or quantifying analysis, either art or measurement (Pinto 2012, 3). Even in his depictions of measurement scales (see images below), Giovanni Battista often nods to the artistry of representation.
For Francesco, the larger scale of these two plans offers a detailed spatial scope that Giovanni Battista usually conveys in other ways.
Francesco’s close attention to this single structure, likely inspired by recent excavations of the site, is also an expansion of a small area in his father’s highly compressed map. The Pianta di Roma at the beginning of this volume—also a “pianta”—uses a much larger scale than this and the previous plan by Francesco. Compared to the “Pianta di Roma,” Giovanni Battista notes that the “forma più ampla” of the Plan of the Roman Forum allows him space “per maggior discernimento di quelche se ne abbia nella presente Topografia generale.” (Index to the Map of Rome, no. 287; Istituto Centrale per la Grafica). On this scale, and as the final images of the volume, Francesco’s plans supplement the first volume of his father’s transformative combinations of archaeological detail and creative artistry with an emphasis on objectivity. (JB)
