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The Currency of Memory: Investigating Coins Depicting Classical Architecture in Giovanni Battista Piranesi's "View of the Remains of the Golden House of Nero" at the RCCAM.
This project explores the usage of Roman coins as non-diegetic symbols in etchings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi.
The Currency of Memory: Investigating Coins Depicting Classical Architecture in Giovanni Battista Piranesi's "View of the Remains of the Golden House of Nero" at the RCCAM.
Mentor: Jordan Fenton, Ph.D.
This project explores the usage of Roman coins as non-diegetic symbols in etchings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, employing visual and historical analysis of iconography and specifically aiming to discover the symbolism and reasoning behind Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s inclusion of a coin in his etching View of the Remains of the Golden House of Nero (1756), along with similar depictions of coins in two other etchings from his series Le Antichità Romane. Using these examples, I am attempting to demonstrate how Piranesi used the coins to acknowledge Rome’s architectural history and support his argument that Roman architecture was worth admiration.