The Tomb of Nero (1747–48): Art, History and Details

The Tomb of Nero (1747–48) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720–1778); Giovanni Bouchard (Italian, 1700-1850).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

An ancient tomb, teeming with slithering snakes and overgrown vegetation, conjures the ruins of a strange and distant past in this print. The more lightly etched background appears faint against the jumble of darker lines in the foreground, as if the whole scene is slowly fading into the mist of time. Although the composition might seem to be one of pure imagination, the tomb it depicts was based on a real monument the artist had observed near Rome. Fascinated by classical antiquity, Giovanni Battista Piranesi evoked his own experience of seeing ruins, which he felt could not be conveyed by a more realistic portrayal.

Object facts

• Title: The Tomb of Nero
• Date: 1747–48
• Creator attribution: Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720–1778); Giovanni Bouchard (Italian, 1700-1850)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching with engraving and drypoint
• Dimensions: Image and Plate: 39.1 x 55.3 cm (15 3/8 x 21 3/4 in.); Sheet: 52.9 x 76.8 cm (20 13/16 x 30 1/4 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1974.255

A detail from the museum

Popularly associated with the Emperor Nero in the 1700s, the monument the artist depicted has since been identified as the tomb of P. Vibius Maranus.

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Prasse Collection

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.