Landscape with the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli 1600

Adam Elsheimer created this painting of a landscape with the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli sometime in the early 17th century. Elsheimer’s painting participates in a broader cultural fascination with classical antiquity that shaped artistic production at the time. The ruins of the Temple of Vesta are an explicit reference to the grandeur of the Roman Empire, but it also points to its decline. We can consider how the image creates meaning through visual codes: The temple is not the focal point. Instead, the landscape, with its dense vegetation, dominates the scene. It is a vision of nature reclaiming the human-built world. The figures washing clothes at the riverbank are an element of the everyday and a visual reminder of what has superseded it. As historians, we can consult guidebooks, travelogues, and archaeological reports to understand the cultural significance of Tivoli at the time. We can trace how the meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.