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The Digital Piranesi

Two Columns with Their Capitals, Architrave, Frieze, and Cornice in the Mausoleum of Constantia

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1. Two Columns with Their Capitals, Architrave, Frieze, and Cornice in the Mausoleum of Constantia
Contents of this annotation:
1. Two Columns with Their Capitals, Architrave, Frieze, and Cornice in the Mausoleum of Constantia
Contents of this annotation:
1. Two Columns with Their Capitals, Architrave, Frieze, and Cornice in the Mausoleum of Constantia
Contents of this annotation:
1. Two Columns with Their Capitals, Architrave, Frieze, and Cornice in the Mausoleum of Constantia
Contents of this annotation:
1. Two Columns with Their Capitals, Architrave, Frieze, and Cornice in the Mausoleum of Constantia
Contents of this annotation:
1. Two Columns with Their Capitals, Architrave, Frieze, and Cornice in the Mausoleum of Constantia
Contents of this annotation:
1. Two Columns with Their Capitals, Architrave, Frieze, and Cornice in the Mausoleum of Constantia
Contents of this annotation:
1. Two Columns with Their Capitals, Architrave, Frieze, and Cornice in the Mausoleum of Constantia
Contents of this annotation:
1. Two Columns with Their Capitals, Architrave, Frieze, and Cornice in the Mausoleum of Constantia
Contents of this annotation:
1. Two Columns with Their Capitals, Architrave, Frieze, and Cornice in the Mausoleum of Constantia

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Interior view of Santa Costanza, built by Constantine the Great, erroneously called the Temple of Bacchus Title: VEDUTA INTERNA DEL SEPOLCRO DI SANTA COSTANZA, FABBRICATO DA COSTANTINO MAGNO, ED ERRONEAMENTE DETTO IL TEMPIO DI BACCO, INOGGI CHIESA DELLA MEDESIMA SANTA. Key: 1. Colonne, basi, e capitelli di grandezza e ornamenti disuguali, tolti da diversi edifizi. 2. Musaici antichi. 3. Finestre antiche. 4. Candelieri antichi di marmo. 5. Pitture moderne. 6. Urna di Porfido tutta d’un pezzo lunga palmi 11. alta palmi. 5.10. larga 6.9. Il coperchio alto 3.2. Signature: Presso l’Autore a Strada Felice alla Trinità de’Monti Signature 2: Piranesi Architetto fec(it). Title: Interior view of Santa Costanza, built by Constantine the Great, erroneously called the Temple of Bacchus, today the Church of the Same Saint [Costanza] Key: 1. Columns, bases, and capitals of unequal/disproportionate width and ornamentation, taken from different buildings 2. Ancient mosaics 3. Ancient windows 4. Ancient candelabra of marble 5. Modern paintings 6. Urn of porphyry made from a single piece, 11 palmi long, 5.10 palmi high, and 6.9 [palmi] wide. The top of the urn 3.2 [palmi] high. Signature: Published by the Author in the Strada Felice near Trinità de Monti. Signature 2: Made by the Architect Piranesi.
This view of Santa Costanza illustrates the way that Piranesi linked his works across volumes through archaeology. Piranesi depicted every detail of the church’s interior in architectural plans, cross-sections, close-ups, measurements, and imaginative reconstructions across several volumes. Here, in the Vedute di Roma, Piranesi takes a wide panoramic view in order to highlight the main architectural features of the interior, including its distinct circular form, columns and corinthian capitals, elaborate mosaics, windows, niches, ornate candelabra, and tomb of Costanza, the daughter of Constantine, for whom the mausoleum is named. Piranesi further explores these details in five etchings in the second volume of the Antichità Romane.

From the outset Piranesi takes issue with other scholars who, according to the title, have “erroneously” attributed the building as the Temple of Bacchus. The round form, typical of Roman tombs, combined with the prominent urn at the center, labeled "6" in the key, leads Piranesi to conclude that this structure was part of a larger mausoleum complex. Remnants of the original structure are identified in the annotations as “ancient” in order to distinguish from the “modern” additions, which are pushed to the background through perspective.

In this plan view of the mausoleum from the Antichità Romane, Piranesi further distinguishes between the extant remains, rendered in darker ink, from his planimetric reconstruction of the entire complex in lighter ink. The crack in the fictive marble slab separates ancient from modern, and “archaeological fact from imaginative fiction,” visual strategies which highlight his “dual role as antiquary and designer” (Pinto, 141-2).

We can also see the ‘antiquarian’ Piranesi in the precise measurements of Costanza’s sarcophagus listed in annotation 6 in the view of the interior. Piranesi notes how the funerary urn was made of porphyry and remarkably constructed from only one piece of stone, declaring that it was “singular for its marvelous size” and for its almost indestructible marble [singolare per la sua maravigliosa grandezza, e per il marmo durissimo]. Piranesi’s more archaeological approach to the above view can also be seen in the details of the columns, which are, according to Piranesi, arranged in a “bizarre” manner having been composed piecemeal from various buildings, materials, and time periods (see the imaginative close-up from the Antichità Romane below).

These subtle discrepancies prompt beholders to look and read closely, to discover Piranesi’s painstaking documentation of the monument’s dating, construction methods and materials, measurements, and decoration, by moving from one view through multiple pages of his entire published works. (ZL)

To see this image in Vedute di Roma, vol 16 of Piranesi's Opere, click here.