Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae: Sacrifice on the Campus Martius
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 13 13/16 x 19 3/16 in. (35.1 x 48.7 cm) plate: 8 7/16 x 16 1/8 in. (21.5 x 41 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1941
Accession Number
41.72(2.136)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the grandeur of ancient Rome with *Speculum Romanae Magniae: Sacrifice on the Campus Martius* (1553), an engraving from Antonio Lafreri's renowned series. This anonymous print captures a dramatic ritual sacrifice on the Campus Martius—the vast Field of Mars, Rome's historic military parade ground and site of public ceremonies. Men and women, animals, and weapons fill the scene, evoking the solemn pomp of Roman religious rites, where offerings honored gods like Mars amid towering architecture. As part of Lafreri's "Mirror of Roman Magnificence," a blockbuster 16th-century collection ...
About the Artist
Anonymous|Antonio Lafreri|Antonio Lafreri
In the vast tapestry of art history, "Anonymous" stands not as a singular individual but as a collective designation for countless unidentified creators whose works have endured across millennia. These artists, spanning prehistoric cave painters to medieval illuminators and folk craftsmen, produced the foundational layers of human visual culture. Prior to the Renaissance, when individual fame emer...