Ichnographiam Campi Martii Antiquae Urbis ("Ichnographia," or Plan of the Campus Martius of the Ancient City)

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, artist

1720–1778

Ichnographiam Campi Martii Antiquae Urbis ("Ichnographia," or Plan of the Campus Martius of the Ancient City), 1757

Portfolio/Series title: Campus Martius Antiquae Urbis (The District of the Campus Martius [literally the “Field of Mars,” a public area in ancient Rome] in the Ancient City)

Where object was made: Italy

Material/technique: engraving; etching

Dimensions:
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 1330 x 1160 mm
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 52 3/8 x 45 11/16 in
Frame Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 63 x 62 x 2 1/2 in
Weight (Weight): 41 lbs

Credit line: Gift from the John and Ann Talleur Collection

Accession number: 2001.0173

Not on display

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Label texts

Exhibition Label:
"Empire of Things," 2013, Kate Meyer
These four prints give a sense of the broad range of Piranesi’s antiquarian interests. Piranesi’s training as an architect informed his ideas about antiquity, which take the form of meditative fantasies (as in the Tomb of Nero, also known as Fantastic Landscape with a Stranded Dolphin), designs for objects that emulate Roman design (Design for a Chimneypiece and a Table), and careful renderings of the ruins and remnants of Roman buildings and inscriptions that remain useful to present-day archeologists (Capitoline Inscriptions and Plan of the Campus Martius). Through his careful documentation of ancient Roman architectural remains-“these speaking ruins,” as Piranesi once described them-he participated in the “Graeco-Roman debate,” arguing forcefully in his texts and polemical works (such as Capitoline Inscriptions and Plan of the Campus Martius) for the superiority of the eclectic Roman style in contradistinction to the “noble simplicity” of ancient Greek design and architecture