Word: cestius
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...even such as those of the immortal Palladio, could never have succeeded in conveying . . ." So in his renderings, the modest stones of Hadrian's Tomb were translated into a crushing, megalithic rock pile that dwarfed the tatterdemalion beggars at its foot; such Roman monuments as the Pyramid of Cestius, which in real life is as inconspicuous as any pyramid can reasonably be, rivaled the Pyramid of Cheops in height and spread. This kind of heroic misinformation provoked some murmuring from English dilettanti who, arriving in Rome armed with nothing but their recollections of Piranesi's engravings, were disappointed...
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