Veue du Campo Vacine et Colisée a Rome  1640 - 1660

Israel Silvestre created this engraving, "Veue du Campo Vacine et Colisée a Rome," capturing a scene of Rome with the Colosseum. Silvestre, born in Nancy, France, in 1621, was known for his detailed topographical prints. The image depicts a bustling Campo Vaccino, or "cow field," which was once the Roman Forum. Notice how Silvestre presents this historical site not as ruins but as an active, lived-in space. Consider what it meant to depict ancient Rome in the 17th century. Was it about celebrating history, or about appropriating a glorious past for contemporary political purposes? The figures scattered throughout the scene – are they merely staffage, or do they suggest a dialogue between past and present, the monumentality of history and the everyday lives of ordinary people? Silvestre’s print invites us to contemplate how history is not just something we look at, but something we inhabit, negotiate, and transform. It's a reminder that our understanding of the past is always mediated by the present, and that the stories we tell about history are always, in some way, about ourselves.