Technique: Etching on Paper

Inscription: At the lower part inscribed in the printing plate: "Temple de la Sibylle Tiburtine à Tivoli. dessine et gravé à l'eau forte par J. J. De Boissieu 1809 à l'age de 73 ans.".

Date: 1809

Description: The round Vesta Temple of Tivoli was already considered the epitome of ancient harmony and architecture by the classicist travellers to Rome. By the middle of the 18th century at the latest, it was therefore one of the most famous ancient temples in the learned world. Not least because of its spectacular location, on a rocky spur above a waterfall plunging 120m into the depths, the temple became an important pilgrimage site for architects, artists and poets alike over the decades. How aptly Boissieu, who travelled to Italy in the 1760s, sketched the scenery around the famous round temple here. Swarmed by people measuring the columns with their hands or eyes and gazing in wonder at the completed capitals, the temple becomes the centre of attention of the entire composition. Even at a further distance from the building, artists can be seen who have taken out their drawing boards and begin to observe and sketch from various angles. It hardly matters then that Boissieu has transformed the actual topography of the site, with its craggy, steeply sloping rock face, into a tranquil river landscape with a waterfall cascading over a comparatively tame cliff edge. Together with the soft, warmly luminous stroke of the etching, this idyllic image of the artists around the famous ruin unites to create a lifelike ideal landscape in the Campagna Romana. |BO

Keywords: Temple, Tivoli, waterfall, cascade, ruin, graphic, etching, Italy, landscape, antiquity, idyll, longing for Italy, 19th century, Romanticism, Landscape, Italy,