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Original fileTempel van Serapis
About This Work
This etching documents the monumental ruins of an ancient temple complex, featuring massive vaulted foundations and a surviving tall section of the upper structure. The scene includes lettered markers 'A' and 'B' designating remnants of grand staircases and the temple core, with tiny figures in the foreground providing a sense of scale. The crumbling masonry is partially overgrown with vegetation, reflecting the early modern fascination with the decay of classical grandeur.
As a work by the court engraver for Rudolf II in Prague, this print reflects the imperial interest in the physical remains of Roman solar and mystery cults. The site was central to Renaissance antiquarian studies of the 'Prisca Theologia,' as thinkers sought to reconcile the cults of Sol and Serapis with a broader Hermetic history of divine wisdom.
Inscriptions(Italian)
Parte del monte Quirinale che guarda verso Ponente dove si vede nel segno. A. gli vestigij di due grandis.e scalle, per salire dal piano nella somita del monte, dove erano diversi edificij, nel segno B. vi si vede vestigij del Tempio del sole qual secondo alcuni, fu da l' Imperatore Aurelio edificato molto alla grande, si come anco ne dimostrano i suoi fragmenti tra liquali si sono trovati cauando questi di parecchie base di colonne grandiss.e donde de luna di esse se ne fatto l'uaso della fontana del popolo, il volgo chiama questo Marco Sadeler excudit edificio il Frontone di Nerone 29
Translation
Part of the Quirinal Hill facing West where one sees at the mark A. the vestiges of two very large staircases, for ascending from the plain to the summit of the hill, where there were various buildings; at the mark B. one sees vestiges of the Temple of the Sun which according to some, was built on a very grand scale by the Emperor Aurelian, just as its fragments demonstrate, among which have been found, by excavating these, several bases of very large columns from one of which the basin of the fountain of the people was made; the common people call this Marco Sadeler excudit building the Frontispiece of Nero 29
Connected Texts
Macrobius
His Saturnalia was the primary source for the syncretism of Sol and Serapis, a concept central to the identity of these ruins in the Renaissance.
Francesco Colonna
The architectural mysticism and ruined landscapes of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili mirror the antiquarian sentiment captured in Sadeler's Roman views.
Provenance & Source
Object
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
paper
height 157 mm x width 270 mm
architectural
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 2, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.