This plan, as well as the Plan of the Ancient Roman Forum and the Plan of the Capitoline Hill, creates the illusion of a three-dimensional stone bursting out of its etched frame, in the style of the Forma Urbis or Marble Plan. Of these plans, John Pinto notes that “Piranesi employs the conventions of the Marble Plan not merely to separate archaeological fact from imaginative fiction, but to signal his dual role as antiquary and designer” (Pinto 2012, 142). Piranesi also signals these roles by indicating scale, explaining numerous details, and orienting viewers with a compass rose. This image merges, in its visual illusion and its extensive detail, his artistry and knowledge.  

The image depicts the plan of several monuments located between two of Rome’s seven hills, the Palatine and Caelian, and the Colosseum. As the caption explains, the subject is the Nymphaeum of Nero together with the Stadium, Odeon, and Temples of the Flavian family, built by Domitian (“Rappresentasi nella figura I il Ninfeo, di Nerone, e insieme lo Stadio, l’Odeo, ed i Templi della Gente Flavia, fabbricati da Domiziano”). In the first century CE, Emperor Nero initiated a major building project, including a temple of his own – his Domus Aurea or golden house – and a nymphaeum. The latter is a monument that consecrated nymphs and resembles a natural cave with flowing water. Therefore, Nero also had an aqueduct built, which Piranesi identifies in figure I, that provided the necessary water (9). Nero’s nymphaeum had, he specifies, “magnifiche fontane, ornate di Tritoni, cavalli marini, delfini, e gruppi di Statue” (6). He also identifies and describes elements of the nymphaeum (1-10, 26) and the surrounding buildings (11-25, 27). They were built under Domitian, the third and last emperor of the Flavian dynasty. Although not many years had passed between Nero’s death in 68 CE and the start of Domitian’s reign in 81 CE, there were as many as five emperors in the intervening years. Once Nero died, his building project was modified. Domitian, for instance, added many buildings himself. All of these structures come together in this image. 

Besides the large slab of marble, three additional figures (F. II, F. III, and F. IV) and their related captions reveal Piranesi’s commitment to interpreting the evidence of inscriptions and architectural design. Striking is his extensive knowledge of the monuments, which includes his correction of a possible error in an ancient inscription shown in figures II and III (10) and his speculation that the passageway behind the tribunes located at the same level as the Stadium of Domitian, directly behind the waterworks shown in figure IV, was designed to preserve the adorning stucco work from humidity (12). Such corrections and interpretations serve Piranesi’s aim in Le Antichità Romane to prove his knowledge of ancient Rome and his status as an antiquarian. (ML)