Columns of the Temple of Neptune at Paestum

Constantin Hansen

1838 · Oil on canvas · European Paintings

In June 1838, as part of his extended Italian sojourn (1835–43), Hansen visited the Hellenic complex at Paestum, about fifty miles south of Naples. To compose this view, he stood within the so-called Temple of Neptune, using its massive fluted Doric columns to frame the distant Temple of Athena. This study owes a debt to Hansen’s early training as an architect, a career he abandoned in order to study with the leading lights of the golden age of Danish painting, Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg and his pupil Christen Købke.

Artist

Constantin Hansen

Date

1838

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Gift of Eugene V. Thaw, 2007