Inverted Vedute

view from victor emanuel II

Rome is a place that is hard to keep oriented in. Curving and dancing in response to ancient ritual, the streets are crowded by the buildings, making it difficult to find the objects of the city and places that might help to keep your bearings. The Monument to victor Emanuel II is one of those places. If it is approached and the steps traversed, the building helps to reorient visitors to the city. The monumental facade of the building squares itself to the North gate of the city and allows visitors standing on its steps to gaze down the Via Del Corso, towards the obelisk of the Piazza Del Popolo. The view down the long street heightens my understanding of Rome’s size and connectedness. But in an odd way, the distance of the Corso creates a perspective distortion that is rarely experienced at such great scale.

The building is also built into the Capitoline hill, which is the seat of the Italian Government. This fact explains why the Victor Emanuel II monument was build here and why its monumentality is so overstated. Walking up the steps of the monument remakes the experience of climbing the hill and brings fresh understanding to the importance of the site. Once near the upper landings of the monument, the landscape begins to take shape and the railings of the buildings lower levels add definition to the curvature of the hill’s leading edge. The Via Del Corso also splits in half near the Base of the Victor Emanuel monument and brings vehicle traffic around the Capitoline hill’s base. One direction leads to the ancient forum and Colosseum while the other leads down to the theater of Marcellus and potential river crossings.