FEMALE NARRATOR:
This is a view of Paestum, one of the major archeological sites in Italy. Located near the coast some 100 miles south of Naples, the ancient city was founded in 600 BC as a Greek colony. Later sacked by the Romans, it is famed for its Doric temples. While the site was never completely forgotten, the spectacular ruins became the focus of renewed interest in the mid-18th century, after the excavation of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
This magnificent bird’s-eye view of Paestum by Antonio Joli was painted shortly after the city’s rediscovery. He painted the site from the east, overlooking its fertile surroundings. From left to right, you see the temple of Ceres, Goddess of agriculture… the temple of Neptune, God of the Sea … and the temple of Athena, Goddess of War, Wisdom, and the domestic arts…. Walls mark the ancient boundaries of the city. In the distance, a small mountain rises into the luminous sky, a village nestled in its foothills.
Views like this were especially popular with foreign tourists eager for a memento of their stay in Italy. Joli’s masterful technique and dazzling use of perspective made him one of the great vedutisti, or view painters, of his time. In the shadowy foreground, a horse-drawn carriage… and a shepherd driving his flock before him, lead us into the scene. At the lower left, you’ll find a figure sketching—perhaps Joli himself, with a companion who gestures toward the ancient ruins.
A View of Paestum
c. 1759
Antonio Joli (Italian, 1700-1777)
On View
Antonio Joli’s talent as a reportorial view painter was honed through an itinerant practice that took him from Rome to London. In the 1750s, he returned to southern Italy to paint the sites for European visitors on the Grand Tour as well as local patrons.
This depiction of Paestum and the surrounding countryside displays Joli’s sensitivity to aerial perspective, as seen in the diaphanous rays of the rising sun, appearing on the eastern horizon. In the shadowed foreground, visitors walk the trails leading to the ruins. Clusters of travelers, some on horseback, approach the temples. To fend off the plateau’s malaria-carrying mosquitos, two guides carry lit, smoking torches. Paestum’s well-preserved Doric-style structures attracted architects from all over Europe. From the left, the temples of Athena, Poseidon and Hera stand within the walls of the ancient town.
Details
- Artist Name: Antonio Joli (Italian, 1700-1777)
- Title: A View of Paestum
- Date: c. 1759
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 30-3/16 x 47-3/4 in. (76.7 x 121.3 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation, Gift of Mr. Norton Simon
- Accession Number: M.1979.52.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
John Embling (sale, London, Sotheby’s, 10 December 1975, lot 61, as A View of Paestum, to);
Norton Simon, Malibu, N.76.2.2.P., gift 1979 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Norton Simon, Malibu, N.76.2.2.P., gift 1979 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
[on loan]
- J. Paul Getty Museum, 1978-03 to 1978-05
[on loan]
- New Orleans, New Orleans Museum of Art, 1976-05 to 1976-10
- Ottani Cavina, Anna, Paestum and the Doric Revival 1750-1830: Essential Outlines of an Approach, 1986, fig. 30 pp. 62-64
- Spinosa, Nicola, Pittura napoletana del Settecento dal Rococò al Classicismo, 1987, under no. 280, color pl. 59
- Middione, Roberto, Antonio Joli, 1995, under nos. 25, 26
- Spinosa, Nicola and Leonardo Di Mauro, Vedute napoletane del Settecento, 1996, no. 70, fig. 60
- Manzelli, Mario, Antonio Joli: Opera pittorica, 1999, no. W.1, fig. XLVI
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 1292 p. 391
- John Julius Norwich, Cities that Shaped the Ancient World, 2014, cover cover and p.139
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