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Another View of the Sibylline Temple at Tivoli

Artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, October 4, 1720–November 9, 1778)
Title Another View of the Sibylline Temple at Tivoli (Altra veduta del tempio della Sibilla in Tivoli)
Series Views of Rome
Date 1761
Medium Etching on paper
Dimensions Image: 17 3/8 x 26 in. (44.1 x 66 cm)
Plate: 17 5/8 x 26 1/8 in. (44.8 x 66.4 cm)
Sheet: 19 3/8 x 28 1/16 in. (49.2 x 71.3 cm)
Credit Line Collection of Diether Thimme, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 98.285.8

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About this Work

The small, circular temple at Tivoli, built late in the first century AD, has long been associated with a sibyl, or prophetess. The Odes of Horace tell us that the Tiburtine Sibyl was worshipped there beside a waterfall. The beautiful ruin on its dramatic site drew many artists over the years and Giovanni Battista Piranesi was inspired to publish three different views. This image shows the "back" of the temple where the colonnade has fallen away to expose a door into the interior. His sequence of perspectives reflects Piranesi's wish, in the later decades of his career, to be archaeologically correct and complete in his descriptions. However, the romantic emphasis on nature's conquest of the site, and the flickering patterns of light and dark express Piranesi's subjective and artistic interpretation of the scene.


Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

Series Title Views of Rome
Foreign Language Series Title Vedute di Roma

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"Another View of the Sibylline Temple at Tivoli | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2024. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=98.285.8