Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Rom 23 - 1828

Friedrich Maximilian Hessemer made this pencil drawing of the Santi Giovanni e Paolo church in Rome. The church itself speaks to centuries of religious and political authority in Italy, and Hessemer’s choice to depict it through the cool, objective lines of architectural drawing fits into a broader 19th-century interest in cataloging and preserving historical monuments. We might consider how the rise of art academies and museums created a demand for this kind of precise, documentary image-making. Artists of the time were also interested in defining national identities through architecture, and these drawings were made in a time of immense political upheaval. The image, therefore, carries particular cultural weight because the church is situated in a specific geographical and institutional context. By exploring the archives of art academies, travel diaries of artists, and the political history of 19th-century Italy, we can better understand the layers of meaning embedded in this seemingly straightforward drawing.