View of the Baths of Caracalla (?) in Rome 1770 - 1817

Daniël Dupré, who was active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, created this drawing called "View of the Baths of Caracalla (?) in Rome" with pen and gray ink on paper. Dupré, like many artists of his time, was captivated by the grandeur and historical weight of Roman architecture, and the ruins spoke of the rise and fall of empires. This was a period where the societal elite romanticized antiquity; they reflected on themes of power, decay, and the passage of time. What does it mean to see the past through a lens of loss and longing? Dupré's choice to depict the Baths of Caracalla, once a vibrant hub of social life, now standing in partial ruin, hints at a reflection on the ephemeral nature of human achievement. The Baths symbolize a past era's aspirations for social connectivity and leisure. In our own time, thinking about the lives of those who built and frequented these spaces calls us to reflect on our own social structures.