View of the Aqueducts of the Acqua Claudia and of S. Stefano Rotondo

This view seems to have been made from a vantage point in front of the church of Santa Maria in Domnica, which stood beside the main entrance to the Villa Mattei. The church is also called Santa Maria of the Navicella because of the small marble boat that stands in front of it. This image shows monuments from three different eras in the long history of Rome: Imperial, Early Christian, and Renaissance. At the left are the ruins of a branch of the Aqua Claudia built by the emperor Nero after the disastrous fire in 64 AD. The circular building is the church of San Stefano Rotondo, commissioned by Pope Simplicius in the fifth century. The navicella itself is an early 16th Century copy of an ancient sculpture.