Gezicht op de binnenplaats van de Tempel van Salomo 1754 - 1755

Robert Sayer made this print of the Temple of Solomon sometime in the 18th century. It shows the Temple as an orderly, rational space, fit for solemn rituals. Sayer was a London print seller whose business was at the heart of a booming industry. In the 1700s, London was flooded with printed images of every kind. They were displayed and sold in shop windows and door frames and even from baskets in the street. The effect was to spread information and cultivate public opinion like never before. Note how the architecture in this picture is very much in the style of London at that time. The artist wasn't trying to give a historically accurate picture of Jerusalem so much as to assert London's place as the new centre of faith and commerce. To understand prints like this, we can look into the archives of printmakers and sellers. By doing this, we can appreciate how artworks are part of a wider social and institutional context.