Quamuis marmoris huius lateat argumentum, aliqui tamen ad Imperatorem Gallienum… | The gods of Olympus host Ceaser Galen

The engraving, inspired by a relief from the collection held at the Matteini villa on the Caelius hill in Rome, depicts the assumption (into the gods) of Gallienus (218-268), who stopped the persecution of Christians, reformed the army and stripped senators of their positions in the army and administration. He and his family were assassinated in a conspiracy, but he was posthumously idolised. The emperor, dressed only in a cloak but with the attributes of a warrior, steps resolutely towards Athena, who beckons him with her eyes. He is led by an old man extinguishing a torch and followed by a young man carrying a torch. The four elemental deities are located in the corners of the scene: Neptune at the bottom left and Ceres at the bottom right, Helios at the top left and Volcano at the top right. The discussed board 22 originates from the album Admiranda Romanorum antiquitatu featuring a title page, a dedication composition and 80 boards with reproductions of notable Roman reliefs, reproduced from the ruins of ancient buildings and monuments from the Capitoline excavations. Pietro Santi Bartoli (1635-1700), known for documenting ancient art and architecture, was the creator of the engravings, and the descriptions therein were done by Giovanni Bellori (1613-1696), a painter and influential critic, who in 1664 launched Neoclassicism by delivering a lecture on idealism in art at the Academy of Art in Rome. Their work was released in 1693 from the Roman printing house of Giovanni Jacopo de Rossi, then run by his son Domenico. The engraving bears a dedication to Cardinal Flavio Chigi (1631-1693), nephew of Pope Alexander VII and friend of Queen Christina of Sweden, for whom Bartoli worked at her Roman headquarters as curator of the art collection, and Bellori served as her librarian and antiquarian. The publication had several editions, and the present board dates back to 1797. Ewa Gwiazdowska