Veduta Interiore del Tempio Esastilo Ipetro dalla Parte di Levante

An interior view of a temple at Paestum, engraved by Filippo Morghen after a drawing by Antonio Joli.

Taken from Le Antichità di Pozzuoli, Baja e Cuma.

Antonio Joli (Modena, March 13, 1700 – Naples, April 29, 1777) carried out a meticulous series of drawings of the famous plain of Paestum. Joli reproduced various aspects from life in a series of drawings made on site. From these sheets, now lost, Filippo Morghen produced six engravings in 1776. The drawings served Joli for the creation of canvases in his studio, likely commissioned by the Neapolitan court.

The painter likely repeated the theme of views of the temples of Paestum several times, even after 1759, perhaps using the same original drawings.

The artist and printmaker Filippo Morghen and the painter Antonio Joli both worked in Naples, at that time under the enlightened rule of the Bourbon kings Charles II and Ferdinand VII. Morghen made prints for the published volumes of the antiquities of Herculaneum, and he rendered the images of Paestum made by Joli in the 1760s into a small portfolio of prints. This was dedicated to Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron of Baltimore—an unsavory character who was reputed to have kept a harem in Istanbul and who had no interest in Maryland except to enjoy the revenues it provided. In keeping with its didactic intent, the Joli–Morghen publication included a lengthy explanation of the images.

Etching, printed on contemporary laid paper, trimmed to the platemark, traces of glue on the back, otherwise good condition.