William Page Aegina: Aphaia Temple from the southeast

Graphite

38 x 55 cm
This drawing, made with aid of a camera obscura, shows the picturesque temple of Jupiter Panhellenius, which stands on Mount Panhellion and commands a view of the Saronic Gulf. The temple is dedicated to Aphaia, a goddess whose cult was found only at Aegina, and it is one of the loveliest late Archaic temples in Greece. In 1811 C. R. Cockerell and Baron Haller von Hallerstein excavated the site and found the fallen pedimental sculpture from the temple, dating from circa 510 to 490 BC. Seventeen of the statues that they excavated were acquired by Ludwig I of Bavaria, and are today in the Glyptothek in Munich.

Pomardi drew this view from the same spot on Mount Panhellion He and Dodwell evidently liked Aegina, and they produced nearly thirty drawings of the temple and its surroundings.