The Arch of Trajan at Benevento

The Arch of Trajan at Benevento is one of the best-preserved triumphal arches of antiquity, and by the mid-eighteenth century it had become a required stop for travellers venturing south of Naples. Antonio Joli documented the arch in 1759 during the years he was working for the Bourbon court in Naples, and the resulting canvas — now in the Prado — reflects the period's scholarly interest in documenting Roman monuments systematically before they suffered further decay. The arch's elaborate relief sculpture celebrating Trajan's Dacian campaigns and civic benefactions was of particular interest to antiquarians, and Joli's rendering gives the reliefs careful attention without sacrificing the sense of the monument's physical presence within its small-town setting. Painted in the same year as his famous canvases of Carlos III's departure from Naples, the Benevento arch view shows Joli working in a quieter, more contemplative documentary mode alongside his ceremonial commissions.

Joli renders the arch's marble surface with textured, slightly broken brushwork that conveys the weathering of seventeen centuries. The relief sculpture is suggested rather than minutely described, a compromise between documentary fidelity and painterly economy at canvas scale.