The Mausoleum of Hadrian
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, ca. 1756
$123
Print check at 14 x 11 in: 157 dpi, good. Fills the print edge to edge.
Shipping to a US address: $24.80 for this piece, from the print room in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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Giovanni Battista Piranesi spent most of his working life etching Rome as if the city itself were his sitter — obsessive, oversized, deliberately more monumental than the ruins actually were. This plate from his career-defining series Vedute di Roma (Views of Rome), etched around 1756, shows the Mausoleum of the Emperor Hadrian from the rear — the massive cylindrical tomb built in the 2nd century CE that was later fortified into the papal stronghold known as Castel Sant'Angelo. What to notice: Piranesi's signature trick is scale — his tiny human figures, dwarfed against the masonry, exist purely to make the architecture feel colossal. He etched over 130 views of Rome across his lifetime, effectively inventing the picture postcard two centuries early, and teaching all of Europe what Roman ruin was supposed to look like.
- Maker
- Giovanni Battista Piranesi
- Date
- ca. 1756
- Medium of the original
- Plate
- Original held by
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Credit
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00292
| Picture | 14 x 11 in |
|---|---|
| Outside size | 15.6 x 12.6 in |
| Depth | 0.9 in (22 mm) |
| Weight | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]] |
| Hanging | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]] |
| Material | Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing |
| Made in | Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi |
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | dpi | Grade | How it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 x 8 in | 216 | Excellent | Trimmed 1.8% |
| 14 x 11 in | 157 | Good | Edge to edge |
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 12 x 8 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 16 x 12 in | 137 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 18 x 12 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 20 x 16 in | 108 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 24 x 16 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 24 x 18 in | 91 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 20 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 30 x 24 in | 72 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 36 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 40 x 30 in | 55 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 48 x 36 in | 45 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 60 x 40 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 2,200 x 1,728 px, srgb
- Tone
- Darks 83, lights 223 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 97.47
- Notes
- Neutrals lean warm (yellow): the paper and varnish of the original, kept as scanned
Shipping for this piece to a US address is $24.80, the print room’s own rate, charged per piece. Checkout shows the total before you pay.
Every piece is printed after you order it, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ships from there. For now we ship to US addresses only.
A piece that arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size is replaced at our cost. The details: shipping and returns and replacements.
Cabinet of Curiosities
The old world’s book of wonders, for your wall.
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