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GUSTAVE-ADOLPHE GERHARDT

Frieze from the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, Rome.
Watercolor with pencil and pen under drawing

Frieze from the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, Rome.
Watercolor with pencil and pen under drawing; 1866. Signed and dated lower right by the artist, G Gerhardt 1866.[1] With the artist’s inscription FRISE ROME TEMPLE D’ANTONIN ET FAUSTINE MOITIE D’EXON

The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina was built in 141 AC and dedicated by Emperor Antoninus Pius to his late wife Faustina; after Antoninus died the Temple was dedicated to both[2].

Exhibited: Académie des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1867
Literature: Pierre Pinon, et François-Xavier, Amprimoz, Les envois de Rome (1778-1968):Architecture et Archéologie, Académie Française de Rome, 1988, p. 392. Jean-Michel Leniaud, (dir.),  Procès-verbaux de l’Académie des Beaux-arts, Paris, 2009, vol. XII, p. 380, p. 433.

Gerhardt, a student at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1865. He spent the next four years in Rome, studying examples of Classical and Renaissance art.  The sculptural remains of the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina represented one of the most noted remains of Roman art. Gerhardt focused his attention on the decoration of the frieze situated above the columns on the exterior of the monument. Still visible today, these reliefs feature pairs of affronted griffins separated by a vase, each animal placing a paw on the acanthus decorating the base of the vase. [3]
Gerhardt’s large scale drawing was executed in more than half of the original size of the original frieze. He treated the ruins with some freedom, organizing his drawing not as an exact copy, thus a relatively independent perception of Classical antiquity [4].  The frieze on site was lodged above the columns of the Temple, at a considerable distance from viewers, relegating it to the character of a distant vista. Gerhardt’s drawing brought the relief down from its original position and emphasized the boldness of the sculpture, endowing the forms with an immediacy that was hard to grasp in the original. Our drawing composed of several sheets reflects the 19th century admiration for Classical antiquity.  

After his return to Paris Gerhardt embarked on an official career and became architecte des bâtiments civils in 1889[6]. He was professor at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in the 1880s and architect to the Collège de France. A number of drawings by him are in the Académie Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris. These include the studies he sent from Rome during his third year as pensionnaire at the Villa Medici, and which were bought by the French state[7].

1 Dated 1866, the present drawing was executed during Gerhardt’s first year in Rome and sent to Paris, where it was exhibited the following year. The artist was praised in the report written by the committee in charge of judging the works: “M. Gerhardt a exposé un travail étendu sur le temple d’Antonin et Faustine, dont la commission loue l’ensemble et les détails”[1] (see Leniaud, p. 433).
2 Located at the entrance of the Forum, it was converted into a church in the middle ages and remained well preserved. Over the centuries the monument was a source of inspiration for painters, including Canaletto (Royal Collection, UK; c. 1740) and Lancelot-Théodore Turpin de Crissé (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: 1808).

3 The mythical creatures, with the beak and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion, were a frequent theme in funerary art, first in the ancient Orient and Greece, before being adopted by the Romans.

4 Gerhardt chose to show only part of this recurrent motif. His composition begins on the left-hand side with the end of a griffin’s tail, then features a candelabrum, an entire griffin, a vase, and at the far-right end of the sheet, a very small part from the paw of a third animal.

5 G.H.Jones, after Cresy and Taylor, The Architectural Antiquities Of Rome; Measured And Delineated By G.L. Taylor And Edward Cresy, Architects, And Fellows Of The
Society Of Antiquaries. Vol. I. (II.), q1821-22, London,  Hullmandel.

6 This title designates in France architects specialized in the restoration of buildings and monuments that have a historical or archeological value.

7 Some of the works (envois) were acquired by the state but by and large, in accordance with the Académie’s rules, once exhibited the works were returned to the pensionnaires, this drawing among them.