10263 ROSSINI, Luigi (1790 - 1857).
- [CASTEL ST. ANGELO - ROME] VEDUTA DELLA GRAN MOLE ADRIANA & PONTE ELIO
Scudellari, Rome, 1821. Engraving, plate size, 440 x 550 mm., uncoloured, wide margins, no marks or flaws, framed & glazed. The dark bulk of Castel St.Angelo (scene of Tosca's death leap) is well caught by Rossini, Piranesi's follower.The 'Mole Adriana' was built by the Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his successors. It was finished the year after his death (he ruled AD 117-138, during which time he built Hadrian's Wall in britain, as well as he Pantheon and many other buildings in rome). Inside were buried Hadrian and his wife Sabina, as well as Lucius Verus, and the emperors Antonius, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Septimus Severus (who died in York in AD 211) and his son Caracalla. However, the mausoleum soon became more important as a fortress. As it was originally ouside the city walls it was rather a liability, for when the barbarian invasions began in the 3rd century, this fortress-like building so close to the walls would have given the invaders an ideal defensive structure against any counter-attack. By the time of Belisarius, who retook Rome from the Goths in 535, the mausoleum had become an outpost of the city's defences, linked to the walls by the Aelian Bridge (the Ponte Elio) across the Tiber. In the Middle Ages this tomb had become the main citadel of the city, the Castle of St. Angelo, and was used later as a papal residence and stronghold. Click here to order
$1250 framed.
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