Trophy of the ancient marble Clementino at the Vatican Museum, which was found in 1772 

This etching by Giovanni Battista Piranesi depicts an ancient marble trophy, discovered in 1772, during a period of intense archaeological exploration and Neoclassical artistic revival. Piranesi, an artist deeply invested in Rome's past, captures not just the object but also the cultural fervor surrounding antiquity. The trophy itself, a composite of symbols—figures in classical drapery, armor, and laurel wreaths—speaks to the complex construction of power and identity in ancient Rome. Note how Piranesi emphasizes the trophy's fragmented nature, reflective of the selective way history is remembered and reconstructed. Piranesi’s work invites us to consider how societies choose to memorialize their past, and whose stories are deemed worthy of preservation. It speaks to the tension between the idealization of antiquity and the tangible remnants of a complex, often contradictory, history.