Marcantonio Raimondis so-called Caryatid Façade has received scant attention, yet
it occupies an important place in the printmakers oeuvre and was widely admired
and imitated in the sixteenth century. The image, which features an
architectural façade adorned with Caryatid and Persian porticoes and an
oversized female capital, does not fit easily with the usual narrative about
Raimondis career in Rome, summed up in Vasaris account that he collaborated with
Raphael to publicise the masters storie. Rather than being an illustration of a
religious or mythological subject, it brings together architectural fantasia,
archaeology and Vitruvian studies, reflecting on the origins of the orders and
the nature of architectural ornament. Arguably, it is also an indirect trace of
Raphaels unfinished projects to reconstruct Rome and to collaborate with
humanist Fabio Calvo and others on a new, illustrated edition of Vitruvius.