Wikimedia Commons · CC0 1.0 · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileRuïnes bij Misenum
About This Work
The print depicts a series of vaulted stone arches and chambers built into a hillside, partially overgrown with vegetation. Figures in early modern dress explore the site while a shepherd and his flock rest on a nearby slope under a radiant sun with a human face. In the background, a coastal landscape reveals further distant structures and the Mediterranean sea.
Created by Aegidius Sadeler, a prominent artist at the court of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, this work reflects the Rudolfine interest in the melancholic beauty of ruins as symbols of 'Sic Transit Gloria Mundi' (so passes the glory of the world). The site's historical association with the death of Emperor Tiberius connects it to the Renaissance philosophical contemplation of the rise and fall of civilizations.
Inscriptions(Latin)
Vna gran fabrica dal uolgo cento camerelle dimandata per il gran numero de picciole camerette in uolta che quiui si ueggono co' i suoi usci tanto bassi che a gran pena ui si entra. E questa fabrica nelle viscere di quel braccio di terra che facendo l'Istimo gionge il promontorio et monte Miseno alla terra ferma della Campania felice con certa strettezza che per il più non si continua oltre a cinque miglia, seruiua ancor essa per conserua di acqua dolce et si presume sia qualche parte di quella famosissima uilla di Lucio Lucullo nella quale poi morse Tiberio Imp. carico de LXXIX. anni. Marco Sadeler excudit. 47
Translation
A large structure called by the common people the "hundred little chambers" because of the great number of small vaulted rooms that are seen there, with their doors so low that one enters them with great difficulty. And this structure, in the bowels of that arm of land which, forming the isthmus, joins the promontory and mount of Miseno to the mainland of the Campania felice with a certain narrowness that for the most part does not continue beyond five miles, served also as a reservoir for fresh water and is presumed to be some part of that most famous villa of Lucius Lucullus in which later the Emperor Tiberius died, burdened by 79 years. Marco Sadeler excudit. 47
Connected Texts
Aegidius Sadeler
Sadeler was the principal engraver for Rudolf II, whose court was a major center for alchemical and Hermetic studies.
Provenance & Source
Object
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
paper
height 159 mm x width 259 mm
landscape
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 2, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.