Archaeological Plate with Ornament Designs from the "Cirque de Caracalla" in Rome

Engraving with archaeological plates with ornament subjects from the "Cirque de Carcalla" in Rome. Also known as the "Circus Maximus", the Circus of Caracalla was a chariot racetrack in Ancient Rome, first constructed in the 6th century BC, where the Roman Games, wild animal hunts, public executions, and gladiator fights were held, in addition to the chariot races. The track was divided by a decorated barrier in the center, which had two obelisks, creating the circuit around which the chariots would run. This plate contains an illustration of one such obelisks, with a base of the obelisk decorated with interlacing motifs, a wreath of laurel leaves above it, which wraps around the obelisk, and upon which stand female figures, half-dressed with draping garments, holding hands and running around the obelisk; the upper part of the obelisk is decorated with spade motifs and branches with laurel leaves, and has a round tip. To the sides of the obelisk are two large, round frames, with a hasp above and flanked by two c-curves holding a smaller roundel below, each with chariot racing motifs: on the left, a nude male figure riding two horses, and on the right a make figure riding a chariot led by four horses. Under the two frames are two smaller roundels, also with chariot racing motifs: on the left, a woman dressed in draped fabrics standing on a chariot led by four racing horses, and on the right, an angel, also wearing a draped dress, in a chariot led by two horses.

This kind of archaeological plate, illustrating neoclassical scenes with subjects from Ancient Rome and Greece, was characteristic of French art in the eighteenth century, where a renewed interest in classical antiquity was fostered by both the discovery of the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and the increasing importance of the Grand Tour, in which the "cognoscenti" (persons of culture and sensibility) traveled to study the monuments of Roman and Greek Antiquity. Archaeological plates like this would have been printed in illustrated books with detailed descriptions of freshly discovered ruins, in an effort to retrieve the glories of lost civilizations and disseminate the style that would come to characterize the neoclassical taste in the arts.