The Mausoleum of Hadrian
Piranesi's Rome — the fortress that was once an emperor's tomb.
- Work
- View of the Mausoleum of the Emperor Hadrian (Castel Sant’Angelo), from Vedute di Roma
- Artist / naturalist
- Giovanni Battista Piranesi
- Origin & date
- Rome, ca. 1756
- Held by
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Format
The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source — yours to print, study, and keep.
Size
$19.00
The story
Giovanni Battista Piranesi spent most of his working life etching Rome as if the city itself were his sitter — obsessive, oversized, deliberately more monumental than the ruins actually were. This plate from his career-defining series Vedute di Roma (Views of Rome), etched around 1756, shows the Mausoleum of the Emperor Hadrian from the rear — the massive cylindrical tomb built in the 2nd century CE that was later fortified into the papal stronghold known as Castel Sant'Angelo. What to notice: Piranesi's signature trick is scale — his tiny human figures, dwarfed against the masonry, exist purely to make the architecture feel colossal. He etched over 130 views of Rome across his lifetime, effectively inventing the picture postcard two centuries early, and teaching all of Europe what Roman ruin was supposed to look like.
About this reproduction
- Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s open-access release.
- Printed to order on 200gsm EMA matte art paper: smooth, no glare.
- Color-managed to the source scan.
- Ships in 5–8 business days; satisfaction guarantee.
