Gezicht op Rome 1700 - 1735

This anonymous image offers a bird's-eye view of Rome, a city brimming with ancient and spiritual significance. Notice how the city’s walls and fortifications, depicted in red, stand as symbols of power, resilience, and protection. The image bears motifs reminiscent of cartographic traditions across cultures. Consider the "Ichthys," or fish symbol, once hidden by early Christians to identify themselves. Here, too, the shape of the city itself evokes the protective form of a fish, swimming in the river. This act of ‘mapping’ can be seen across time, as we give shape and form to our hopes and fears. In the Middle Ages the world was represented in maps as a metaphor for the human body. Rome itself, with its walls and fortifications, appears as an organism, a living entity with its own internal anatomy. As we reflect on this depiction, we see the enduring human impulse to map not only physical space but also our collective memory. The act of representation becomes an act of preservation, connecting us to Rome’s legacy across millennia.