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• 1 2021-03-30T11:16:12-07:00 Remains of the Pronaos of the Temple of Jupiter Tonans 9 Avanzo del Pronao del Tempio di Giove Tonante plain 2024-11-06T11:33:35-08:00 Avanzo del Pronao del Tempio di Giove Tonante; A. Avanzi del Tabulario.; Piranesi Archit(etto) dis(egnò) inc(ise). Remains of the Pronaos of the Temple of Jupiter Tonans; A. Remains of the Tabularium.; Drawn and engraved by the Architect Piranesi.

  This image is not meant to show how this type of structure was built but to commemorate the coming together of the ancient and the contemporary. In Piranesi’s time, the site of the Roman Forum was more intertwined with everyday life than it is today. In his print, he shows all that remains of what he identifies as the Temple of Jupiter Tonans: an architrave resting on three partly buried fluted Corinthian columns. At the time the etching was made, the columns had not yet been excavated, so only the shafts with the remains of the roof were visible, as prints by his contemporaries Giuseppe Vasi and Domenico Montagu (fl. 1750-1767), after Jean Barbault (1718-1766), also show. 
  
  Piranesi gives insight into eighteenth-century life in Rome, where the contemporary ground level on which trees grow and staffage figures roam contrasts with the ancient world below, which only peeks through with these remains. That much of the ancient world was beneath is evident in post-excavation prints and photographs from the early nineteenth century that document the exposure of the ground level of antiquity. The excavations also prompted the correction of the misidentification of the monument that began in the sixteenth century, as these are now known to be the ruins of the Temple of Vespasian and Titus, visible to this day. It is likely that nothing remains of the Temple of Jupiter Tonans. 
  
  These ruins contain clues to the building’s history, as an inscription that is partially visible on the architrave, prompts Piranesi to reflect that “Fu eretto da Augusto alle radici del Campidoglio, e ristorato dai predetti incendj, come peranco accennano le lettere ESTITVER, cioè restituerunt, appartenenti alla iscrizione ch’era nell’architrave del pronao” (Index to the Map of Rome, no. 271). The temple was restored after a fire that is mentioned frequently in his Index. He points to the fire on the Campidoglio, probably referring to the fire that burned across the entire Capitoline area in 69 CE and damaged a number of monuments. In a later Index entry and with an annotation in the print he refers to the Tabulario (A) that had to be removed: “Esso era situato sulla sostruzione fatta al Monte Capitolino in questa parte, ove fu tagliato per dar luogo al piano del Tempio di Giove Tonante surriferito” (Index to the Map of Rome, no. 274).  
  
  The image fits within Piranesi’s aim of using Le Antichità Romane to glorify the ancient city on which he and his contemporaries built their lives. Later, in volume IV, he is more interested in the building components of temples than their integration in the modern city; in figure XLIV, for instance, a cornice, architrave, and capital are measured and removed from their contemporary setting. Furthermore, this building also appears in his Antichità Romane de' Tempi della Repubblica, e de' primi Imperatori and his Vedute di Roma. In the Vedute, he even magnifies the great contrasts between the monument and the staffage figures walking around it. In both that and this image, which probably include the same tree to the left, the blending of ancient with modern life is emphasized by the nature surrounding the temple. (ML) 
  
  NB: This image appears to be out of sequence in the Didot edition of this volume, possibly meant to appear where "Interior View of the Temple of Santo Stefano Rotondo" appears.