Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae: Arch of Septimus Severus 1526 - 1613

This print of the Arch of Septimius Severus was made sometime after its construction in 203 A.D. and was part of a project called "Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae," a collection of prints depicting ancient Roman monuments. But why create such a collection? In sixteenth-century Rome, antiquities became a battleground for cultural and political power. Patrons and artists were eager to display their knowledge of and connection to the past. The prints in "Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae" made these monuments accessible to a wider audience. But it also reshaped these monuments as aesthetic objects. No longer civic architecture, the Arch became an art object to be possessed. These prints remind us that our experience of art is always mediated by social and institutional forces. Looking closely at such objects and the archives that surround them allows us to explore how these forces shape our understanding of the past.