Paintings in the Pyramid
One of three prints Piranesi made of the painted decoration inside the pyramid tomb of Caius Cestius near the Porta Ostiense. He depicts the broken plaster pieces as three dimensional chunks, arranged artfully against the concrete interior wall of the tomb chamber. Originally examined and drawn a hundred years before, the design included the repeated motif of candelabra dividing up the wall surface, one of which is shown on the right. On the left is a fragment showing a metal vase called a hydria.
The symmetrical arrangement chosen by Piranesi has, as the centrepiece, a standing female figure carrying a small jug in one hand and in the other a tray with offerings. Piranesi comments in the caption on the colour of her robe but his main interest is to show that he diverges in his opinion of the identity of the central item on the tray from that of Ottavio Falconieri (an earlier antiquarian scholar whom he has clearly read but does not name). The latter says it is a cake or “placenta” whereas Piranesi says he is drawing it exactly as he saw it, and it is a cup (coppa).
His insistence on the primacy of empirical observation is revealing of his serious intent to be seen as an antiquarian, ready when necessary to point out mistakes in the work of others.
Vaso di color di metallo dipinto sopra l’intonicatura…. from Antichità Romane, volume III, plate XLVI
tapri-gbp06-040
