BSR VIRTUAL EXHIBITIONS

This print is view of the Mausoleum of Hadrian - the Castel Sant’Angelo. The prints of the Mausoleum in the Antichità Romane focus on the ancient architecture and structure of the mausoleum, but this veduta focuses on the changes made to it by later Papal remodelling. The drum of the mausoleum, the construction of which began in 123 AD, dominates the background of the print, but the focus is on the later modifications as it was converted to a papal fortress: one of the four pentagonal watchtowers commissioned by Pope Alexander VI sits at the centre of the print, connected to the Passetto di Borgo - the 800m long porticoed passageway built in 1277 by Pope Nicholas III which linked the Mausoleum directly to the Vatican palace. The modern outbuildings that housed the armoury and other offices appear on the left side of the print, with the walls that surrounded the entire complex visible in the background. In the darker foreground, piles of cannonballs are inspected by groups of small figures, emphasising the military context of the fortress. The antiquity of the mausoleum is here secondary to Piranesi’s celebration of the papal modifications that had turned it into a vital feature of early modern Rome. 

Veduta del Mausoleo d’Elio Adriano (ora chiamato Castel S. Angelo) nella parte opposta alla Facciata dentro al Castello
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