Veduta del Tempio di Antonino e Faustino in Campo Vaccino

Giovanni Battista Piranesi is one of history’s best etchers and architects. His two main series of copper etchings, I Carceri (The Prisons) and Vedute (The Views) spread out across the European continent and beyond both during his life and after his death. The “Wonders of Nature and Artifice” exhibition at Schmucker Art Gallery is lucky to have one of his original prints from the Vedute series generously on loan, from the Collection of Professor Charles F. Emmons, Professor of Sociology here at Gettysburg College. The print sizes in at 35 inches by 25 and a half inches, depicting a temple-church combination that stands in the Roman Forum with 18th century Rome stretching out behind it, and various denizens of the 19th century surrounding the structure. The title of the print, Veduta del Tempio di Antonino e Faustina in Campo Vaccino is a very literal one, translating to “View of the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina in Campo Vaccino”, Campo Vaccino being a cow pasture that became the Roman Forum before the area was excavated. [excerpt