The Temple of Saturn, now the Church of St. Adrian at the foot of the Capitoline Hill 1641

Curator: This plate by Giacomo Lauro captures the Temple of Saturn, now the Church of St. Adrian, at the foot of Capitoline Hill. The printwork measures about 17 by 23 centimeters. Editor: It’s so precise, almost architectural in its detail, yet there’s something serene about the landscape. It feels like a dreamscape. Curator: Lauro has meticulously rendered the classical features - the columns, the pediment, the statues atop - really emphasizing the temple's imposing form. Editor: But even with all the detail, the line work feels almost ethereal, doesn't it? As if the building is a fragment of a memory, solid and dissolving all at once. Curator: That tension is what makes it so compelling, I think. It speaks to the layers of history embedded in the site, the pagan temple becoming a Christian church. Editor: It's like a visual palimpsest. I see the ancient world peering through the present, or perhaps the present reimagining antiquity. Beautiful.