The Excavation of an Obelisk from the Campo Marzo

The Excavation of an Obelisk from the Campo Marzo

Jean Barbault

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This obelisk had been unearthed in 1748 when small houses behind Palazzo di Montecitorio were torn down in order to construct a new building for the Augustinian monks of S. Maria del Popolo. The obelisk was found broken into five major pieces. This plate shows a pulley system used to move the blocks. The block on the far left has a dedicatory inscription by Emperor Augustus. To the right of the plate is Palazzo della Vignaccia, in the courtyard of which the obelisk was temporarily relocated.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Excavation of an Obelisk from the Campo MarzoThe Excavation of an Obelisk from the Campo MarzoThe Excavation of an Obelisk from the Campo MarzoThe Excavation of an Obelisk from the Campo MarzoThe Excavation of an Obelisk from the Campo Marzo

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.