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»Rom, wie es war und wie es ist«
Die Erfindung der Vorher-Nachher-Illustration in der Frühen Neuzeit
What did the ruins of Rome look like when they were built in antiquity? For centuries, antiquarians and artists of the early modern period tried to create an idea of the ancient Urbs and its monuments in text and image. This paper examines when and how a print mode of representation developed that somewhat systematically contrasts the reconstructed state of the buildings with their ruins - a principle referred to here as before-and-after illustration. After isolated examples in the second half of the 16th century - above all by Étienne Dupérac and his circle - and less successful publications by Giovanni Maggi and Pietro Paolo Orlandi, it was only the illustrated editions of Alessandro Donati's widely published bestseller Roma vetus ac recens from 1662 that achieved the breakthrough. The history of its impact, as well as alternative modes of representation, is being traced into the 19th century.
