The Tombs Attributed to Piso Licinianus and the Cornelii on the Appian Way (Veduta del Sepolcro di Pisone Liciniano su l'antica via Appia)

The Appian Way is one of the earliest, longest, and most important Roman roads. Piranesi had reason to assume the tombs decorating the roadway belonged to prominent families from Roman society. Still, no clear markers attribute these specific tombs to the families Piranesi listed in this work. At the time of engraving, neither family tomb location was known to the public. What is present on the tomb is dissolution. The collapsing stone dominates the composition, belittling the figures in the otherwise desolate scene. It is an ode to how, amid societal degeneration, even the most significant can end up in the same place as the impoverished.

Arthur M. Hind (Author), Giovanni Battista Piranesi: A Critical Study, with a List of His Published Works and Detailed Catalogues of the Prisons and the Views of Rome, Da Capo Press, New York, 1967, ©1922

Henri Focillon (Author), Giovanni-Battista Piranesi: Essai de Catalogue Raisonné de Son Oeuvre, Librairie Renouard, Henri Laurens, Paris, 1918

Piranesi's Rome: Views of the Eternal City, Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, Olivia Kohler-Maga, September 04, 2024 - December 07, 2024