Temple of Jupiter Tonans [Jupiter the Thunderer]. 1. Temple of Concord, plate 7 from Some Views of Triumphal Arches and other Monuments 1748

Giovanni Battista Piranesi made this etching, Temple of Jupiter Tonans and Temple of Concord, sometime in the mid-18th century. Piranesi was an Italian artist, celebrated for his detailed engravings of Roman architecture. The print captures the grandeur of ancient Rome, but through a lens of decay and ruin. It invites reflection on the passage of time and the transience of power. The crumbling structures evoke a sense of melancholy, a meditation on the fall of empires. Who were these men who built these temples? And how does that history impact contemporary ideas about citizenship? The artist's detailed technique emphasizes the scale of the ruins, while rendering the human figures small, underscoring the insignificance of the individual in the face of history. Piranesi’s Rome becomes a theater for contemplating mortality and the cyclical nature of civilization. He suggests that even the most powerful empires are subject to the forces of time and decay. What we are left with is an invitation to reflect on the legacies we leave behind.