Giovanni Battista Piranesi
"View of the Remains of the Cella of the Temple of Neptune" 1778–79
The drawing depict views of the great Doric temple in the former Greek colony of Poseidonia, which in the third century B.C. was conquered by the Romans and renamed Paestum (the temple was originally identified as the Temple of Poseidon, but is now determined to have been dedicated to Hera II). Left abandoned and cut off by a swamp, Paestum’s ruins were rediscovered in 1746 thanks to the construction of a new road. They sparked intense interest among artists and architects including Piranesi, and the consequent drawings, prints, paintings and models of the temples revolutionized people’s understanding of early Greek Classical architecture in general and the Doric style in particular. Roman architecture, until this time deemed the style that architects should emulate, now seemed derivative.
High quality
