1665-1667

Piazza della Rotonda

Italian, 1640/43 - 1678

Falda, who received his first training from the famous Baroque architect and sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), was a specialist in etched views of Rome's modern buildings and fountains. His etching of the Pantheon is intended to show improvements made by the current Pope and therefore portrays the ancient structure exactly as it appeared in the mid-seventeenth century, with its twin bell towers and lateral wing, and surrounded by market stalls and Roman palaces with their roof gardens and clotheslines.