Frontispiece for the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanarum 1690 - 1704

This is Jan Goeree’s Frontispiece for the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanarum, made with pen and brown ink, brush and gray wash, over graphite. The drawing’s visual power comes from the structured layering of geometric and organic forms. On the right, an allegorical figure stands beside architectural ruins. Its soft wash and fluid lines contrast with the stark, rectangular frame that dominates the center. This frame, seemingly blank, is actually inscribed with elegant calligraphy, a textual layer that invites close reading. Goeree’s composition plays with contrasts to destabilize traditional representations of knowledge. The precise, linear frame and textual inscription are juxtaposed with the organic ruins and fluidly rendered figures. The formal structure of the drawing mirrors the content of the book it introduces: a collection of Roman antiquities. It suggests that the act of assembling and presenting knowledge is as crucial as the knowledge itself.