Stadion en vier penningen 1580

Onofrio Panvinio made this print, Stadion en vier penningen, sometime between 1530 and 1568. Panvinio's work provides us with a window into the 16th-century fascination with ancient Rome, a fascination driven by both humanist scholarship and the papacy's desire to link itself to the grandeur of the Roman Empire. The print depicts a reconstructed view of an ancient stadium alongside four coins. Each element speaks to the power and spectacle of Roman public life, with a specific emphasis on how rulers like Hadrian and Antoninus projected their authority through monumental architecture and public games. By juxtaposing the stadium with these coins, Panvinio is drawing a parallel between the physical spaces of Roman power and its symbolic representations. What does it mean to resurrect these symbols and spaces during the Renaissance? How did they inform and shape the construction of power in Panvinio’s time, and perhaps even in our own?