Colosseum in Rome 1572 - 1633

Philips Galle made this engraving of the Colosseum in Rome sometime before his death in 1612. It provides a bird's-eye view into the arena, where a gladiatorial combat is taking place before a crowd of spectators. Galle, who lived and worked in the Netherlands, never saw the Colosseum in person, and so he relied on written accounts and visual sources produced by others. Although the Colosseum was an ancient Roman amphitheater, it remained an important cultural site in the early modern period. The Popes staged spectacles there, and artists depicted it as a reminder of Rome’s glorious past. We can see that this image creates meaning through cultural references and historical associations. The Colosseum, even in its state of partial ruin, was a potent reminder of the cyclical nature of empires, their rise and fall. Historians draw on a wide variety of sources to understand the rich meaning of artworks, bearing in mind that the meaning of art is always contingent on a particular social and institutional context.