Arch of Constantine, Rome

Codazzi’s painting depicts the triumphal arch that was dedicated by the people of Rome to the Emperor Constantine in AD 315. It is the largest surviving classical arch and was painted on several occasions by Viviano Codazzi, one of the most important painters of architectural subjects in seventeenth-century Italy. Artists had been interested in the monuments of ancient Rome for many years, particularly since the Renaissance, but the depiction of architectural ruins as the setting for scenes of contemporary life only emerged as a genre in the seventeenth century. Two relatively humble houses can be seen in the middle ground, separated from the classical grandeur of the Arch by a long wall. These houses appear in other paintings by Codazzi, and probably did stand on the site, but the obelisk on the right is a feature invented by the artist. This kind of painting, in which actual structures are combined with imaginary ones, or in which architectural features from different locations are grouped together in one image, is known as a ‘capriccio’.