Pyramid of Caius Cestius

Like his sustained interest in the Colosseum, Piranesi also returned to the subject of this print, the Pyramid of Caius Cestius, throughout his career. This 1761 view is perhaps his most striking interpretation of the ancient monument. Here, Piranesi arranges the composition dramatically, placing the viewer at the lowest possible vantage point as the pyramid rises upward to touch the edge of the plate. Despite the vegetation growing uncontrolled on its surface, the monument’s inscription remains clearly visible on the shadowed face of the pyramid.

Once Egypt had become a province of the Empire in 30 BC, many Romans began to display a taste for all things Egyptian. Caius Cestius, who held several prominent offices under the emperor Augustus (27 BC–14 AD), indulged this taste by constructing his tomb in the shape of a pyramid sometime before 12 BC on the road leading to the port of Ostia. In the third century AD it became a part of the Aurelian walls that surrounded Rome, as can be seen at the left of this veduta. The taste for Egyptianizing forms and monuments continued into the eighteenth century and printmakers, including Piranesi, incorporated ancient Egyptian motifs in their work. Piranesi included a lengthy series on the Pyramid of Caius Cestius in his Antichità Romane volumes of 1756.