Plate 21: Temple of Pola in Istria (Tempio di Pola in Istria), from "Alcune Vedute di Archi Trionfali ed altri monumenti inalzati da Romani parte di quali se veggono in Roma e parte per l'Italia"
Original title: Plate 21: Temple of Pola in Istria (Tempio di Pola in Istria), from "Alcune Vedute di Archi Trionfali ed altri monumenti inalzati da Romani parte di quali se veggono in Roma e parte per l'Italia" (Some Views of Triumphal Arches and other monuments erected by the Romans, some of which are in Rome and some elsewhere in Italy)
kurzbeschreibung
Giovanni Battista Piranesi etched this plate around 1748, recording the remains of the Roman temple at Pola in Istria. It belongs to a series in which he set down triumphal arches and other Roman monuments, some in Rome and some elsewhere in Italy. Architectural precision is joined here to an atmospheric rendering of the surrounding landscape.
Description
Rubble-strewn columns and a partly collapsed roof draw the eye first, with loose stones scattered among them. Further ruins and trees rise behind, and a few figures sit on the debris or stand about. A clouded sky forms a soft counterweight to the darker passages of the masonry. The temple sits at the middle of a wide, horizontally spread view.
Context
This etching comes from a series with which Piranesi documented Roman buildings across Italy. Pola, a Roman colony in Istria, possessed a temple dating to the first century BC. The plate belongs to a period when Piranesi was turning ever more intently toward Roman antiquity. The series was meant to bring the scale of Roman architecture before a broad public.
Impact
A melancholy mood of ruin pervades the sheet, characteristic of the eighteenth century. Decay beneath a restless sky gives the view a sense of the sublime. Piranesi ties the historical weight of the site to its visual appeal.
Technique
Lines bitten into a copper plate carry the whole image, the process being etching. Varying density and direction of stroke build a monochrome range of greys. This allows fine architectural detail to emerge while keeping transitions in the sky soft.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)