De tempel van Aesculapius in de Giardini Borghesi 1788 - 1839

Hendrik Voogd created this delicate pencil drawing of the Temple of Aesculapius in the Giardini Borghese in Rome. The drawing portrays a building designed as a classical temple, dedicated to the Greek god of medicine and healing. Voogd was Dutch, but he spent much of his career in Rome. This was a very popular destination for artists in the 18th and 19th centuries. They flocked to the city to study its ancient ruins and Renaissance masterpieces. The parks of the Roman elite, like the Giardini Borghese, became open-air museums. This drawing is a record of Voogd’s encounter with that cultural landscape. It shows his fascination with classical architecture. But it’s also a product of the art market of his time, where detailed landscape drawings were highly valued by collectors. By studying drawings like this, we can learn about the social networks that sustained artists like Voogd. We can investigate the art market, tourism, and the culture of collecting in the 19th century.