Vedute di Roma 

This etching is one of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vedute di Roma, or Views of Rome. Piranesi produced these views in the 1700s, and they proved very popular with the Grand Tourists who visited Italy to see the ancient monuments. But these prints were more than just picturesque souvenirs. Piranesi was fascinated by Roman antiquity and he was also frustrated by what he saw as the decline of Rome and the neglect of its ancient heritage. This aqueduct, like many of the buildings that Piranesi depicted, is overgrown with plants and populated by vagrants. By emphasizing the grandeur of the ruins and contrasting them with the modern city, Piranesi used his art to comment on the social structures of his own time and critique the institutions that he thought had failed to preserve Rome’s past glory. As art historians, we turn to guidebooks, travel diaries, and architectural treatises to understand better the history of these prints and their place in the culture of 18th-century Europe.