Focus on The Temple of Juno in Agrigento and discuss the Analysis.
Most of the rest of Friedrich's oeuvre rejects neoclassicism and its idealised versions of Roman and Greek architecture in favour of the Gothic. Helmut Börsch-Supan interprets the temple's depiction in the work, surrounded by a barren landscape, symbolises the death of ancient pagan religion, as in the artist's treatment of pagan megalithic tombs, whilst Jens Christian Jensen argued that the work was painted to prove an artist could produce profound Italian subjects without actually having to travel there. Detlef Stapf sees it as a melancholic architectural work drawing on an idea in Christian Cay Lorenz Hirschfeld's Theorie der Gartenkunst (Theory of Garden Art) and that it was produced in hope of its being easier to sell than Friedrich's Gothic works.
megalithic tombs Jens Christian Jensen Helmut Börsch-Supan Christian Cay Lorenz Hirschfeld megalith