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The Digital Piranesi

View of the Ruins of the Baths of Titus

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View of the Remains of the Baths of Titus

After he has depicted the View of the Seven Remaining Corridors of the Second Floor of the Tepidarium of the Baths of Titus, Called the Seven Halls and illustrated the general Plan of the Baths of Titus, Piranesi represents the thermal complex once regarded as the Baths of Titus (now identified as the Baths of Trajan) in its elevation, rendering its remains with accuracy in the veduta and describing its details in the alphabetic key. The lower level (A) is shown in its porched structure, whose form follows the square perimeter of the terrace described in the previous plan’s plate, with its hemicycle structures (C). On the left stands the huge exedra located on the southeast side, which according to Piranesi served as a theatre (E), while on the right are the adjoining ruins of the House of Titus (B). The vast terraced platform bears the remaining structures of what was, according to Piranesi, the so called “Cella Soleare,” the Sunroom of the thermae (D), the core of the building that Piranesi imagined in the plan.

Despite the rather small size of the print, Piranesi meticulously depicts the decorative and architectural elements still visible in his times, such as the coffered vaulting and the decoration of the perimetral hemicycles with arches and niches. Vegetation surrounds the site and begins to cling to the ruined walls, but the main, empty platform allows enough space for the staffage figures to walk around. Their minuscule silhouettes are barely outlined by short traits and, especially in the background, just hinted by one or two lines, thus accentuating the sense of magnificence given to the ancient construction. The huge thermal complex is rendered in its gigantic scale; the high walls, although in ruin, give a sense of bewilderment. At the same time, the horizontal format and especially the bird’s eye perspective, encompassing the whole site and its copious details from high above, give the image an almost model or diorama-like quality. Considering the orientation of the view, which is taken from the south, it can be conjectured that Piranesi could have sketched it from real life, possibly from the Church of San Clemente or from the tower of the Santi Quattro Coronati complex.

Technically, the copperplate has been subjected to successive acid bitings, which give different shades of black and a dramatic chiaroscuro effect to the composition. As in most of Piranesi’s works, the hatching lines are parallel and not crossed, which preserves the matrix during the process of printing. The final retouches, which variously modulate the otherwise too parallel lines, are made with a burin (Mariani 2014, 142). Almost twenty years later, in the last years of his life (1773-1778), Piranesi returned to the Baths of Titus, producing two plates for the Vedute di Roma. The View of the Remains of the Buildings on the Second Floor of the Baths of Titus and the View of the Baths of Titus are two masterpieces in which the genius of the established and – by then – very famous engraver is evident. In these later vedute, the site is by now invaded by trees, and nature has definitely conquered and devoured the ruins. Piranesi’s acute sensibility towards the mobile elements of nature (sky, clouds, trees, vegetation) and their correspondence with human states of mind, foretells the restlessness and the sense of the sublime that reveal an already pre-Romantic attitude towards the depiction of ruins. Eroded and overwhelmed by time, like all human actions, architecture – like art in general – is the last illusion of mankind to be immortal. (CS)