Thermen van Diocletianus

This print depicts the massive, vaulted brick structures of the ancient Roman bath complex, now overgrown with shrubs and trees. In the foreground, various figures, including travelers on horseback and a carriage, wander through the open space, illustrating the monumental scale of the decaying architecture. The scene captures the site during its transition into the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri.

Produced while Aegidius Sadeler was court engraver to Rudolf II, this print reflects the Renaissance obsession with the ruins of antiquity as repositories of lost grandeur and ancient wisdom. Within the Rudolfine circle, such images functioned as meditations on 'memento mori'—the inevitable decay of material empires compared to the permanence of divine or hidden knowledge.