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Ruins of the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine

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C Zoe Langer
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1. Ruins of the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine
H Zoe Langer
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1. Ruins of the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine
B Zoe Langer
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1. Ruins of the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine
G Zoe Langer
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1. Ruins of the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine
F Zoe Langer
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1. Ruins of the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine
E Zoe Langer
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1. Ruins of the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine
A Zoe Langer
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1. Ruins of the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine
B Zoe Langer
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1. Ruins of the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine
H Zoe Langer
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1. Ruins of the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine
A Zoe Langer
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1. Ruins of the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine
D Zoe Langer
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1. Ruins of the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine
H Zoe Langer
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1. Ruins of the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine
F Zoe Langer
Contents of this annotation:
1. Ruins of the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine

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View of the Remains of the Palace of the Caesars on the Palatine
Piranesi was well aware of Rome’s layered structure; the ancient city is not only built on several hills, naturally creating different ground levels, but also intertwines centuries of building, creating a melting pot of architecture. This word-image composite, with its combination of visual details and verbal information, again shows Piranesi combining his contemporary Rome with the foundation that is ancient Rome. While the image depicts the mingling of ancient and modern Rome above ground with his typical staffage figures wandering around and exploring the city’s centuries of history, his annotations also remind viewers of what lies beyond sight underground.

The horizontal format of the image is exaggerated by the vantage point, causing the eye to follow the row of buildings to the far left into the distance. In this wide view Piranesi creates substantial depth and includes many monuments that he indicates in the key. In letters A and B, he states the image shows the Palatine Hill and the ruins of the Palace of the Caesars. In the Index to the Map of Rome, he points out a detail of these remains: the loggias, “along which the doors of cubicula, rooms, halls, exedra, baths, and a great number of living quarters were arranged.” (no. 296) The houses of other important figures are also indicated in the key: Augustus (C), Tiberius (D) and Nero (E). The focus then shifts to the foreground, where staffage figures populate the grounds of the Circus Maximus (F). Letter H appears three times and points to the Marana, the drainage canals in rural Rome, here apparently part of the Aqueduct of the Acqua Crabra. To viewers, the ground level is where the staffage figures walk, but as Piranesi’s annotation marker H demonstrates, another world lies beneath. The tops of the arches emerge just above the ground, giving us a slight insight into what is lying beneath (Compare for example the arches in the View of the Arch of Gallienus). Already apparent in this image is Piranesi’s commitment to uncovering buried elements of Roman antiquity, which determines the subject and strategies of many vedute and cross-sections of tombs in volume two of Le Antichità Romane. (ML)