Minneapolis Institute of Art

The Coliseum

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Date

1757–61

Medium

Etching

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

The Colosseum is the most famous remnant of ancient Rome. Also called the Flavian Amphitheater, it was built under three successive emperors of the Flavius family (Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian) in the years 76 to 92 CE. Today many sports stadiums can trace their oval design to this masterpiece of Roman architecture. Piranesi’s skewed perspective makes us feel as if we were looking at the rounded corner of a square building, a view that apparently gave rise to squarish stadium layouts, such as the late, great Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York, once home to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Italy, Europe

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