A melancholy note is struck, however, by the scattered Roman ruins overgrown with foliage in the foreground, which serve as a reminder of their inevitable erosion through time. Illuminated by a dramatic sunset, the powerful physiques of the gesturing figures and rearing horses convey Piranesi’s passionate belief in the enduring legacy of the ancient civilization. The figures were also thought to represent the man-eating horses of Diomedes, or more popularly, the twin gods Castor and Pollux. In the key at the bottom of the print Piranesi identifies the group as Alexander and his horse Bucephalus, an interpretation that had been popular, but disputed, since the mid sixteenth century. The identity and origin of the marble group, believed to have been in the square since antiquity, have been debated since the Renaissance. In his etching Piranesi focuses on the marble sculptures, which, at over five and a half meters in height, tower over the people in the square. It represents one of the most famous piazzas of Rome, situated on the Quirinal Hill and called Monte Cavallo after the enormous sculptural group of two figures with their horses that grace its centre. View of Piazza di Monte Cavallo belongs to the earliest etchings in the series and is thought to date before 1748. Issuing the plates individually and in groups from the late 1740s, the artist created a total of 135 prints during his long career. The desire to communicate the architectural achievements of the past, and of his contemporaries, led the artist to adopt a larger, double-folio format when he commenced his most famous series of views, the Views of Rome. Initially working on a small format, Piranesi’s delicate etchings of ancient and contemporary Roman architecture imbued their subject with a striking monumentality. The market was well established for these views ( vedute) when, in the mid 1740s, the young Venetian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi made his first prints. During the eighteenth century painted and engraved views of Rome were popular among visitors to the city, in particular the wealthy young Englishmen who roamed the Continent on what was known as the Grand Tour.
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