In The Footsteps of Piranesi at the Villa Adriana

Or how buildings and their ruins are stages for human activity.

You cannot come to Rome and not confront the work of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778). His etchings have created “the image” of the ruins of Ancient Rome, and the Renaissance and Baroque city that grew over it. In my earlier post on my history teacher Bob Nowe, I explained how he used these images to bring Rome alive for us and how he gave out copies of these prints as prizes to prior classes. He had stopped doing this by the time our class got to him, and I was left wanting one of these amazing drawings. I finally was able to purchase one from a junk antique shop on State Street in New Haven after I graduated from college. I was living in and renovating an old two-unit building on Mechanic Street and this print that showed the north wall of the Piazza D’Oro at Hadrian’s Villa occupied pride of place in my house.

The print has accompanied me throughout life and it now hangs in our dining room, albeit in a far nicer frame than it did on Mechanic Street.

One of the things that I have always loved in Piranesi’s plates is how he incorporates figures into them. They provide scale—although I think he makes them slightly smaller than in reality to make the ruins seem larger—but they are also dramatic.

Here is a detail from our print:

On Wednesday a group of us went out to Villa Adriana and of course we made a pilgrimage out to the Piazza D’Oro to see “our wall” and our friend Martin captured the moment.

What is interesting—beyond seeing us—is to notice how Piranesi exaggerated the proportions of the building and adjusted the perspective for dramatic effect.

Here is a view that I took close to the location of Piranesi’s view (I should have actually been further from the wall):

Clearly Piranesi created a far more compelling image than my quick iPhone snapshot —but Martin’s photo of us captured the moment. Following are some more images of the Piazza D’Oro:

The plaque that explains this location includes Piranesi’s view:

At the “Palazzo D’Inverno,” which is now believed to have included Hadrian’s bedroom, the interpretative signage includes a note that Piranesi left his name on the walls here—unfortunately the area was roped off so here is the detail from the plaque:

Piranesi’s gesturing people may be “dramatic” but the majesty of the site does provoke somewhat theatrical behavior. Here Marian and Sonya are working on capturing the vaulted space:

Here is what Piranesi saw:

But in this case our non-scripted pose might be even better:

Marian’s view of the vault. Here she was not trying to recreate a view—rather capture the space.

These two buildings and Piranesi’s views of them only give you a taste of the amazing place that Hadrian created. In many respects it is a Villa that is exploring the notion of an ideal community. I love the plaster model that is housed in a small building at the entrance. The first version was created for the 1937/1938 Augustus exhibition. the one pictured here was recreated in the mid 1950s. I also include the site map you are given: