Texts by Ricardo Bofill, Erik Amfitheatrof, Clementina Panella, Andrea Carandini, Barbara Cartland
1999 / 128 PAGES
The Coliseum, an incredible mixture of eras, shapes and materials: the protagonist of the publication is that assembly of shaped stones, travertine and bricks, those long dark Roman bricks, used only there.
To examine a monument, the Coliseum, which despite its millenary history scrutinises us silently and almost silences us, avoiding the banal and the already known, this volume takes an unusual approach, an unconventional point of view. The narrative voices are the travellers of the Grand Tour, European artists longing to see Italy, eager eyes discovering for the first time and simultaneously, harmony, majesty and balance, an entire architectural dictionary condensed into a single spot. Accompanying Ricardo Bofill's evocative introduction are commentaries by writers and archaeologists on the Colosseum images, accurately rendered through detailed full-page photographs.