# Columns of the Temple of Neptune at Paestum

[View the canonical artwork record](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hansen-constantin-r71315811f29704/columns-of-the-temple-of-neptune-at-paestum-r60c65e829995e4>)

## Artwork

- Artist: [HANSEN, Constantin](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hansen-constantin-r71315811f29704>)
- Date: 1801-1850
- Technique: Oil on canvas, 32 x 25 cm

## Commentary

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&#39;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.

## Related artworks

- [A Group of Danish Artists in Rome](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hansen-constantin-r71315811f29704/a-group-of-danish-artists-in-rome-r5313e7b00aaa1c>)
- [The Arch of Titus in Rome](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hansen-constantin-r71315811f29704/the-arch-of-titus-in-rome-r875e1252cc0352>)

## Attribution

[Web Gallery of Art](<https://beta.wga.hu/pages/about>)