This page was created by Constance Caddell.  The last update was by Jeanne Britton.

The Digital Piranesi

View of the Arch of Titus (1 of 2)

In the textual key below this image, Piranesi recounts that the Arch of Titus was “eretto a questo Imperadore dopo la di lui morte in memoria della distruzione di Gerosolima.” Indeed, directly above the key Piranesi draws our eyes to the menorah, among other symbols of the city, in the monumental bas-reliefs inside the arch that depict the “triumph” of Titus carrying the spoils of war from, the caption specifies, the Temple of Solomon. The coffered barrel vault is elongated, exaggerating the perspective, such that viewers of the print almost inhabit the position of the Emperor himself, walking through the arch in a triumphal procession. The perspective from below (or “sotto in sù”), combined with the descriptive text in the key, enhances the grandeur of the monument and persuasively involves spectators in both the historical past as well as the topographical present. 

Yet for all the pomp and glory, there is perhaps a touch of irony in Piranesi’s visual emphasis on decay. The structure is imbued with both physical and metaphorical ruin. The scars and wounds of the façade in the exposed brick and stone are made visible by his forceful and jagged incisions onto the copper plate. The glory of conquest, retained only in the well-preserved bas-relief, is on the verge of destruction, surrounded by the crumbling, overgrown, and broken pieces of the architrave, central volute, and heavy fluted columns, of which only the base lower shaft is still standing. Lowly activities by the actors in the foreground now accumulate against the outcropping of medieval and Renaissance buildings that pile on top of one another in disorderly succession. John-Wilton Ely has noted the prominence of the gnarled, angular tree that provides a foil to the arch, further highlighting its ruinous state, and the jagged lines of the trees and branches that are reproduced in the plant-like veins of the exposed and rough stone; he  describes the scene as a “veritable anthology of deterioration” (1978, 37). What is produced by nature and by art is deliberately blurred through Piranesi’s juxtaposition of light and dark and his depiction of different textures, almost as though man-made structures have become fused with their natural environment. Decay is additionally underlined in Piranesi’s text. He contrasts the “spoglie” brought back from war that are depicted in the reliefs with the current state of the arch itself, which he describes as “spogliato” after it has been stripped of its decoration and ornament in later periods. His repeated use of this term links imperial plunder and contemporary decay. (ZL)

To see this image in the Vedute di Roma, volume 17 of Piranesi’s Opere, click here.

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