The Temple of Concord on the Wall, Girgenti 1913

Curator: Today we’re looking at Joseph Pennell's 1913 pencil drawing, “The Temple of Concord on the Wall, Girgenti.” Editor: The first thing that strikes me is the atmosphere, there's something somber and monumental in the composition, a brooding quality enhanced by the medium itself. Curator: Indeed. Pennell has employed delicate strokes and varying degrees of shading to achieve a remarkable texture, haven't they? Note how the geometrical lines of the ancient structure contrasts with the roughness of the rocks below it. There is an interplay between form and chaos. Editor: But it is the temple's ruined state atop that rise which commands the dialogue. How empires rise and crumble into the very landscape is rendered tangible here. I'm interested in how he chooses to emphasize decay, particularly when the colonial powers of the time promoted so much cultural extraction. It feels loaded, intentional. Curator: Certainly. The artist plays with shadow to imbue a sense of history. Observe the subtle transitions from light to dark, giving weight to both structure and land. This, together with the stark geometric patterns found throughout, imbues the structure with presence. Editor: Yet that emphasis on shadow is why this resonates beyond form for me; that gloom is a haunting reminder of cultural dispossession—not just what remains standing, but also who benefitted when those stones first fell. I'd ask who commissioned this and to what end? It's about power structures that were relevant then as well as now. Curator: Perhaps so. What strikes me most is the meticulous and artistic approach in representing geometric lines and shadows to create a mood, something undeniably skilled. Editor: Well, ultimately this tension invites us to unpack how these remnants shape both history and identity and I for one find this invaluable to the work.