Rossini (Luigi)

the Arch of Drusus over the Appian Way near the gate called Porto San Sebastiano. The inscription below the title explains that the arch used to support a section of aqueduct known as the Aqua Antoniniana as it crossed the roadway, a spur of the Aqua Marcia constructed by Caracalla to supply water to his new baths. This is one of 101 plates produced by Rossini (1790-1857) for his great work ‘Le Antichitá Romane’ (1819-1829), which followed very much in the tradition established by his 18th century predecessor, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, in recording the increasingly rediscovered remnants of ancient Rome being unearthed by archaeologists in amongst the grandeur of later baroque Rome. Rossini’s plates are distinguished by the greater presence of contemporary figures going about their daily lives at all levels of society,

engraving on wove paper, 450 x 350 mm. (17 3/4 x 13 3/4 in), with full margins, a soft central horizontal fold,