262 ~ TEMPLE OF SERAPIS MACELLUM POZZUOLI Italy ~ 1910 Architecture Art Print

Description: EXACT TITLE ON PRINT : TEMPLE DE SERAPIS A POUZZOLES (TRANSLATION: TEMPLE OF SERAPIS AT POZZUOLI) ARTIST: Caristie PRINT INFORMATION PRINT DATE: This lithograph was printed in 1910 from an original restoration work completed by the artist in 1820. PRINT DIMENSIONS: 12 inches by 17 inches PRINT CONDITION: excellent condition, specifically as shown in this detailed scan. PRINT TYPE: Heliogravure print (see description of process below). PAPER TYPE: Thick rag stock cardboard type paper. PAYMENT INFORMATION : Visa & Mastercard through Paypal. Please email us if you have any questions. All returns accepted! BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND HISTORY ABOUT THIS PRINT : Puteoli (modern Pozzuoli) was an ancient town of Campania, Italy, on the northern shore of the Bay of Puteoli, a portion of the Bay of Naples, from which it is 6 miles West. The original town of Puteoli was situated on the narrow hill of the Castello. Scanty traces of fortifications of the Roman period seem to have come to light in recent tunnelling operations. The streets of the old town probably, as at Naples, preserve the ancient alignment. There are also traces of the division of the lands in the immediate vicinity of the town into squares by parallel paths (decumani and cardines) at regular intervals of iinj Roman feet, postulating as the basis of the division a square with a side of 10,000 Roman feet, divided into 81 smaller squares-an arrangement which could not have existed at Puteoli, and must have arisen elsewhere. It is remarkable as being contrary to Roman surveyors' practice, according to which the basis of division is the intersection at right angles of the cardo and decumanus, which would give an even (not an odd) number of smaller squares. The size of the ancient town at its largest can be roughly fixed by its tombs. Inscriptions show that it was divided into regiones. The market hall (macellum) (compare the similar buildings at Pompeii and elsewhere), generally known as the temple of Serapis, from a statue of that deity found there, was excavated in 1750. It consisted of a rectangular court surrounded by chambers on the outside and with a colonnade of thirty-six columns of cipollino (Carystian) marble and grey granite. The three columns still standing, some 39 ft. high, belong to a facade of four still higher columns erected in front of the absidal cella or sanctuary, with three niches for statues-no doubt of the protecting deities. The borings of marine shellfish visible in these columns between II and 19 ft. from the ground, and the various levels of pavement in the macellum help to indicate, according to Gunther's researches that the level of the shore fell very slightly during the Roman period, when it was some 20 ft. higher than at present; that it fell more rapidly during the middle ages, was then raised again early in the l6th century (before the upheaval of the Monte Nuovo in 1538) and has since been sinking gradually. In the centre was a round colonnade with sixteen columns of Numidian marble (giallo antico) now in the theatre of the palace at Caserta. Dubois reproduces important drawings and a description made by the architect Caristie in 1820. The well-preserved amphitheatre, the subterranean parts of which below the arena are intact, with a main passage down the centre, a curved passage all round with holes for trap doors in its roof, and numerous small chambers, also with trap doors in their vaulted roofs for admitting the wild beasts, whose cages were on the other side of the curved passage, to the arena, are especially interesting. There were also arrangements for flooding the arena, but these can only have been in use before the construction of the greater part of the subterranean portion with its cages, &c. The whole amphitheatre measures 489 by 381 ft., and the arena 245 by 138 ft. Of the upper portion the interior is well preserved, but very little of the external arcades remains. It was not constructed before the reign of Vespasian, for inscriptions record that it was built by the Colonia Flavia. There was, however, an amphitheatre in the reign of Nero, who himself fought in games given there, and the glass cup of Odemira shows two. A ruin still exists which may be doubtfully attributed to the latter. Remains of thermae also exist in various places, the mineral springs having been much used in Roman times. The cathedral of S. Proculus (containing the tomb of the musician Pergolesi, d. 1736) is built into a temple of Augustus, erected by L. Calpurnius, 6 columns of which, with their Corinthian capitals, still exist. Other ruins, of a circus, of tombs, &c., exist, and there are also considerable remains of villas in the neighbourhood. INFORMATION ON THE HISTORY OF THIS PRINT: Louis XIV, the King of France, was a generous patron of the arts. During his long reign (1643-1715), he sought to raise standards of taste and sophistication in the Arts and so a number of royal academies were founded, including the Academy of Painting and Sculpture (1648), the Academie de France in Rome (1663) and the foundation of the Academie royale d'Architecture (1671). This formalized a system for the training of French architects and by elevating artisans to academicians, the power of the medieval guilds was eroded and centered instead on the patronage of the king. Subsidized by the state, the Academy of Architecture was free to those, aged fifteen to thirty, who could pass the entrance examinations. By the nineteenth century, students were obliged to complete a number of increasingly demanding concours or competitions, the most prestigious of which was the Grand Prix de Rome, a rigorous annual examination (a first competition was in 1702, then 1720, then yearly) that provided the winner advanced study at the French Academy in Rome at the Villa Medici, where classical antiquities could be seen at first hand. Each year, for the four or five years they were in Rome, the students, supported financially with pensions, (hence their name of pensionnaires) were required to produce two sets of drawings, or envois, of Rome's ancient and medeival monuments: the état actuel, which was an exacting representation of the extant state, documenting the site with the precision of an archaeologist, and the état restauré, a more imaginary and often idealized restoration including the rendering of shade and shadow, which was accompanied by a written description of the monument's antiquity and construction. Often times, the views of the architects differed from those of the archaeologists in that the students wanted to use such buildings as inspiration for their own work, and hence reconstructed them omplete and coloured, often at the disagreement of the archaeologists. The drawings submitted for the annual Grand Prix de Rome were on themes chosen by the Academy. The subjects set are indeed grand in scale and often in reach: triumphal arches (1730, 1747, 1763), palaces (1752, 1772, 1791, 1804, 1806), city squares and markets (1733, 1792, 1801), town halls (1742, 1787, 1813), law courts (1782, 1821) museums (1779) and educational institutions including libraries (1775, 1786, 1789, 1800, 1807, 1811, 1814, 1815, 1820) - all schemes for the promotion of civilization as the ancients would have understood the term. Stylistically, the entries usually share common characteristics: a grand Roman manner, with columns and orders, vaults and polychromy; an insistent and regular geometry, usually the square or the circle but sometimes the triangle; a penchant for the hemicycle, the propylaea and the pyramid; and finally a desire to impress by symmetry and the contrast between plain and decorated surfaces. These ground plans (a drawing projected on a horizontal plane) and elevations (which was projected on a vertical plane) first were shown in Rome at the French Academy and then were forwarded to Paris to be shown to the members of the Academie des Beaux Arts, one of the constituent bodies of the Institut de France, which was responsible for the Rome Academy. They were also exhibited to the public in Paris. In the fourth year, after a thorough study of architectural detail, the student presented a complete restoration of a classical building. Although drawings of ancient classical ornament had been made for generations before the winners of the Grand Prix de Rome descended on the Villa Medici, the young Frenchmen were the first to go about the work systematically. The drawings were limited to, and solidly based on, the carefully studied remains. Further, their presentation in formal academic renderings offers more information than could possibly be supplied even by a large number of photographs. Appreciation of these drawings cannot be complete without some explanation of the technique of India Ink was rendering. Extreme discipline is required to produce these finely studied works of art. Even the simplest drawings require painstaking care and preparation before any of the washes are applied. Great skill is required to do the neccesary linework. All of the information must be recorded before tone is even thought about. The drawing is then meticulously transferred in ink to the watercolor paper and the paper mounted on a board. The rendering itself requires infinite care and patience. Each tone is built up through many faint layers of wash so that the ink seems to be in the paper rather than on it. Each surface is graded so that the final effect of the drawing is that of an object in light and space, with a sense of atmosphere surrounding it.

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End Time: 2024-02-18T21:07:31.000Z

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