Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius

1548

Nicolas Beatrizet

(French, active Italy, 1507 or 1515-about 1565)

Culture

France, worked in Rome, 16th century

Medium

engraving

Credit Line

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1922.143

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Location

Not on view

Description

When Michelangelo redesigned the Campidoglio, a civic piazza on top of Capitoline Hill in Rome, he repositioned the ancient Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius in the center of the piazza on a newly designed plinth with antique-style lettering. Just after the piazza was completed, Nicolas Beatrizet made this engraving of the statue and plinth as part of a series of prints of Roman monuments, which were often purchased by travelers to Rome. Michelangelo was uncredited in such images, but his impact on civic design gradually became part of the collective visual memory of Rome.