Thermen van Agrippa 1704

Jan Goeree made this print, Thermen van Agrippa, around the turn of the 18th century, deploying etching to show both the ancient structure and its contemporary ruins. Goeree was working in the Netherlands, a country then at the forefront of both cartography and the popularization of classical antiquity. This image participates in both of those cultural trends. It revives Agrippa’s bath complex through the conventions of the architectural plan. Yet below that we see the actual remains in Rome and a sculptural grouping evoking the world of the Roman baths. The print presents a dual vision, setting rational reconstruction next to Romantic ruin. As art historians, we can locate the image within the history of archeology, which was then only beginning to systematically recover the material culture of the classical world. If we want to understand the image more deeply, we can research the cultural fascination with the classical world and the early practices of archaeology. The artwork reminds us that our understanding of the past is always shaped by the present.