Posted by Introduction
Paestum was founded in the 7th century BC under the name of Posidonia by Greek colonists. At the end of the fifth cenruty BC, according to Strabo, the city was conquered by the Lucanians. It became the Roman city of Paestum in 273 BC. The city started going into decline on the fourth century AD and it was abandoned during the middle ages.
Today Paestum is a small town in the province of Salerno, region of Campania, in Italy. Its fame is due to the three ancient Greek temples in the Doric order, dating from about 600 to 450 BC, which are in a very good state of preservation.
The three temples were dedicated to Hera, (two) and Athena. For a time, the second Hera temple was mistakenly believed to have been dedicated to Poseidon.
The first Hera temple was built around 550 BC.
The second Hera temple was built around 460 – 450 BC.
The Athena temple was build around 500 BC.
I have visited Paestum and I always recall with admiration the way the temples are integrated with the landscape. It is as if they have always been there, from the beginning of time.
Paestum’s ruins came to wide notice again in the eighteenth century. This post presents illustrations of the temples from this century. I start with the prints of Filippo Morghen and then present the engravings of Piranesi. The post concludes with a watercolor picture painted by JW Turner.
Prints and Drawings
The prints of Filippo Morghen
The set of six prints of Filippo Morghen (1730–after 1807) appeared in 1765.
The plates carry the name of Antonio Joli, Italian, 1700–1777, as draughtsman.
The pictures below belong to the Arthur Ross Collection of the Yale University Art Gallery.
General View of the Remains of Paestum from the South,
Etching, sight in frame (plate): 27.6 × 38.7 cm (10 7/8 × 15 1/4 in.)
Side View of the Three Temples from the East), from Antichità di Pesto (Antiquities of Paestum,
Etching, sight in frame (plate): 27.7 × 39 cm (10 7/8 × 15 3/8 in.) framed: 50.15 × 65.7 × 2.2 cm (19 3/4 × 25 7/8 × 7/8 in.)
Another Interior View of the Hexastyle Hypaethral Temple from the South,
Etching, sight in frame (plate): 27.8 × 38.8 cm (10 15/16 × 15 1/4 in.) framed: 50.15 × 65.7 × 2.2 cm (19 3/4 × 25 7/8 × 7/8 in.)
The engravings of Piranesi
Venetian-born Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–78), artist, architect, stage and interior designer, living in Rome from 1740, was much in demand for his topographical drawings, and architectural capriccio, fantasy drawings.
Piranesi visited Paestum in 1777 in order to prepare preparatory drawings for the etchings. He then returned to his home in Rome and in 1778 completed the drawings in the studio and create the etchings.
He created 21 prints with the help of his son Francesco. Piranesi scholars agree that Francesco was involved in the etching, if not the design, of the plates (three of them were actually signed by him).
They were published posthumously in his book Différentes Vues de Pesto. The fact that the temple of Juno received only three plates may signify that the project was never brought to completion.
Soane owned a copy of Piranesi’s book Différentes Vues de Pesto, with Piranesi’s accompanying inscription that ‘Italian antiquities showed greater originality than those of Greece’.
Only 17 prints survive today. 15 prints were purchased by the English architect Sir John Soane (1753–1837), at auction at Christies in March, 1817.
A watercolor by JW Turner
Turner Bequest CXCV 102, Tate Gallery, London
Turner was inspired by Piranesi’s etchings and painted this picture, to use in one of his lectures. I remind the reader that The Temple of Neptune is the second temple dedicated to Hera.
Andrea Fredericksen comments in Tate Gallery’s webpage:
“Prepared by Turner for his lectures as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, this finished watercolour of the Temple of Neptune at Paestum was once marked ‘52’.
As Helen Dorey demonstrates, this diagram and its subject are evidence of the overlapping interests of Turner and John Soane as respectively Professors of Perspective and Architecture at the Royal Academy. Soane had visited Paestum, south of Naples, in 1778 when he spent several days measuring the Doric Temple of Neptune which although ‘exceedingly rude’ and lacking ‘elegance & taste’ exerted enduring influence on his own work for its grandeur and scale.”
Epilogue
We do not know whether Piranesi changed his mind about the temples in Paestum after he finished the etchings. As it usually happens, when disucssing the past, people try to address concerns of the present and this clouds their judgement and perception of the past. But what is for sure is that his etchings portayed the temples in a way that revealed their beauty whatwever this beauty may be.
Sources
[1] S. Lang, The Early Publications of the Temples at Paestum, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 13, No. 1/2 (1950), pp. 48-64 (19 pages).
[2] Rosalind Ormiston reveals Piranesi’s architecturally important drawings of the Greek temples in Paestum, Italy, CASSONE, May 2013.
[3] LOLA KANTOR-KAZOVSKY, PIRANESI’S PAESTUM, PRINT QUARTERLY, XXXI, 2014, 2