031.

Parte di Campo Vaccino

This is one of three prints Vasi dedicated to the Roman Forum, known at the time as Campo Vaccino. Once the heart of the ancient city, the Forum had become peripheral to the lived-in part of Rome by the middle ages and had indeed become a "cow field" as the image reveals. The ground level had risen to about 8 meters above the imperial level as indicated by the columns on the arch of Septimius Severus (1) in the left foreground, which are buried for a quarter of their height and whose high pedestals are completely hidden. The building at the extreme left (NN 926) was a customs house, another indication of this being the edge of the 18th century city. It was demolished in the 19th century excavations of the Forum together with the two buildings beyond it. The half-buried column (4) was dedicated in 608 to the Byzantine emperor Phocas, and represents the last addition made to the Forum in antiquity. Today it is the only remnant of the group of buildings shown at left. The tree in the foreground is one of the double row of elms planted in the reign of Pope Alexander VII (1655-67) flanking the section of the Via Papale, or papal processional route, between the arch of Septimius Severus and the arch of Titus at the opposite end of the Forum, Plate 32. The cordonata (stair-ramp) at the extreme right edge of the print is another part of the Via Papale, leading down to the arch of Septimius from the Campidoglio, alongside the Tabularium. The building on top of the Roman Tabularium (5) is the palazzo Senatorio, topped by the Renaissance bell tower. Vasi misnames the Temple of Saturn (2) and identifies the three half-buried columns of the temple of Vespasian (3) as "Colonne nel Clivo del Campidoglio."; These were further excavated in 1813 by the architect Valadier.