Modinature in large parts of the Temple of Honor and Virtue 

Giovanni Battista Piranesi created this print, "Modinature in large parts of the Temple of Honor and Virtue," as part of his obsessive study of Roman antiquities. Piranesi was working during the Enlightenment, an era when rediscovering and celebrating classical antiquity became a way to imagine the present and future. This print meticulously catalogs architectural fragments. At the center, two figures – possibly allegories of honor and virtue – flank the column and entablature details. Piranesi seems less concerned with the actual temple and more interested in the symbolic power of Roman architecture. Think about this work as part of a larger cultural project wherein the ruins of Rome are being reimagined as a foundation for contemporary society. Piranesi's Rome becomes a stage where history, power, and the sheer weight of the past are palpable. What stories do these stones tell? And what do they leave unsaid about the lives of those who built, lived, and died in their shadows?