Exterior View of the Roman Baths at Trier

Ramboux, from the ancient town of Trier in southwestern Germany, spent the years from 1815-22 in Rome. While in Italy, he studied ancient and medieval art and architecture with great intensity. After his return to Trier, Ramboux began a project to produce a series of views of the ancient Roman and Medieval buildings and ruins found in and around the city, which had been one of the principal administrative centers of late-imperial Rome. Ramboux intended to issue the series in eight parts, split between ancient and medieval buildings, and each consisting of four prints: two of architecture and two of landscapes. The ambitious plan faltered, doomed by high cost and lack of public response. Only the first four parts, dedicated to Roman ruins, appeared; this view features the picturesque disorder of Trier’s ancient Roman baths, a reminder that even pastoral, Romantic Germany had an imperial, ancient history.