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The Digital PiranesiMain MenuAboutThe Digital Piranesi is a developing digital humanities project that aims to provide an enhanced digital edition of the works of Italian illustrator Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778).Works and VolumesGenres, Subjects, and ThemesBibliographyGlossary
Ruin of the Aqueduct of the Acqua Alsietina
12020-04-10T20:59:18-07:00Avery Freemanb9edcb567e2471c9ec37caa50383522b90999cba228492from Volume 01 of Giovanni Battista Piranesi's Opereplain2021-12-19T08:34:57-08:00Internet Archiveimagepiranesi-ia-vol1-015.jpgJeanne Brittone120651dde677d5cf1fd515358b14d86eb289f11
12021-03-30T11:16:09-07:00Remains of the Aqueduct of the Acqua Alsietina9Avanzo del Condotto dell'Acqua Alsietinaplain2024-10-11T12:25:40-07:00Avanzo del Condotto dell'Acqua Alsietina. A. Speco del condotto fabbricato di opera incerta, ed investito sì nell’esterno che nell’interno di opera reticolata. B. Intonacatura dell’opera reticolata nell’interno dello speco, composta di testacei pesti. C. Lastrico composto di testacei contusi.; Piranesi Archit(etto) dis(egnò) inc(ise).Remains of the aqueduct of the Acqua Alsietina. A. Canal of the aqueduct, built in opus incertum and covered on the interior and exterior with opus reticulatum. B. Plaster of opus reticulatum in the canal interior, composed of crushed pottery shards. C. Bricks composed of crushed pottery shards.; Drawn and engraved by the Architect Piranesi.
By contrast to both the technical images in this volume (many of which are likely the work of his workshop assistants) and the dramatic images collected in the Vedute di Roma, this plate combines a close attention to the texture and decay of ancient building materials with the shadows and overgrowth common in his more commercial depictions of ruins. Along the eastern edge of the city, where the Janiculum Hill meets the Aurelian Wall, and just to the left of the compass rose in this volume’s Map of Rome, Piranesi notes in the map’s index that remains of the foundations of the Aqua Alsietina, demonstrated in this image, are visible (Index to the Map of Rome, no. 56). Surrounded by deep, shadowed gashes and topped with protruding branches, opus reticulatum occupies most of the plate, as the close-ups below demonstrate.
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The index to the map also notes that a current excavation (during the 1750s) was yielding remnants of opus reticulatum at the location of the former emissarium, or outlet, of the Alsietina Aqueduct (Index to the Map of Rome, no. 156). As opus reticulatum, which was used between the first century BCE and the first century CE, was phased out in the following century, its presence can serve as evidence in determining dates of ancient structures.
This construction method also relates to Piranesi’s etching technique. The representation of ancient ruins in the medium of copperplate etching is, Susan Stewart has argued, appropriate: because each pressing of a copper plate can erode the malleable metal, “[p]rintmaking is indeed,” she notes, itself “a process of ruination” (122). The diagonal net-like pattern of opus reticulatum resembles cross-hatching, a technique Piranesi avoided precisely because it could, after multiple pressings, lead to larger pools of ink on the page (Yourcenar). Although Piranesi here renders the blocks of opus reticulatum with techniques other than cross-hatching, this correlation nevertheless suggests one way that Piranesi’s approach to his medium enabled him to, as he says of the ancient remains being threatened by further damage and loss, he wants to “conservarli col mezzo delle stampe” (Preface to Scholars of Roman Antiquities). (JB)
