Temple of Mars Ultor, Rome

James Holland

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Holland first visited Italy in 1835 and would thereafter return often. He here responds to the ruined Temple of Mars Ultor (Mars the Avenger), which stands in a corner of the Forum of Augustus. Three Corinthian columns, at left, survive from a temple colonnade erected by the emperor Augustus. A sunken arch at center, built by the emperor Tiberius in 19 ce was known locally as the Arco dei Panani (Italian for "fen," a water-covered lowland), referring to the swampy site. The artist shows it spanning the Via di Tor de’ Conti with oxcart in the foreground to demonstrate that life continues among the ruins. The restrained tonality of Holland’s washes indicates a date before 1845.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art