Italy - Campania//Paestum; Thomas Major (1720–1799)// Johann Sebastian Müller, 1715–1792 - A View of the Ruins of the City of Pæstum. - 1761-1780

The print offers a majestic aerial and overall view of the Campanian archaeological site of Paestum, enclosed within its ancient fortified walls and dominated by the chain of the Monti Soprano and Sottano mountains. The perspective, designed to combine documentary rigor with pre-romantic sensibility, highlights the three major Doric temples built between the 6th and 5th centuries BCE:

1. The two temples in the foreground (South Area)

• The Temple of Neptune (or Hera II): It is the majestic Doric temple located in the center, depicted in all its exceptional structural integrity. The engraving meticulously describes the densely peripteral colonnade and the preserved pediments, celebrated in the eighteenth century as the supreme example of sublime classical severity.
• The Basilica (or Temple of Hera I): Positioned immediately lower, in the foreground. The work highlights its ennastyle plan (9 columns on the front) and the characteristic flattening of the archaic capitals (echinus expanded), elements that Major and Miller immortalized to document the evolution of Greek architecture.

2. The temple in the background (North Area)

• The Temple of Athena (formerly known as the Temple of Ceres): Stands isolated in the upper left part of the composition. The view captures its elevated position above the rest of the city and the partial ruin of the pediment, surrounded by small late‑18th‑century rural settlements.

3. Contextual elements and topography

The work is not limited to the architectures but maps the entire topography of the site: the remains of the Roman Amphitheatre (the circular structure at the center), the layout of the defensive wall punctuated by square and circular towers, and fragments of other buried structures are clearly distinguishable. Streaks of shepherds and eighteenth‑century wayfarers punctuate the scene, offering a precise proportional scale and that picturesque taste typical of the Grand Tour aesthetic.

Good overall condition, authentic and intact. Clear inking, the inscription of the slab well marked, and wide original margins.