Jean-Guillaume Moitte
Spoils of the Temple: After a Relief from the Arch of Titus, Romecirca 1791

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Classical Revivals in Europe and America

Horizontal plaster or pale stone relief sculpture depicting a Roman-style procession of robed figures carrying a large menorah, staffs, and a trumpet, with a stone arch at right

Artist or Maker: Jean-Guillaume Moitte
France, Paris, 1746-1810, active Italy, Rome
Title: Spoils of the Temple: After a Relief from the Arch of Titus, Rome
Date Made: circa 1791
Medium: Earthenware
Dimensions: 14 × 23 1/2 × 2 1/2 in. (35.56 × 59.69 × 6.35 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Camilla Chandler Frost
Accession Number: M.79.49
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: In the second half of the eighteenth century, a trip to Rome was not only essential for members of the educated upper class but a prerequisite to artistic success. Artists in training at the French Academy who demonstrated sufficient talent received scholarships for residencies in Rome to study antiquities and the works of Renaissance masters. Jean-Guillaume Moitte won such a scholarship, the Prix de Rome, in 1768. He lived in the city from 1771 to 1773, engaging with the methods and subjects of classical art and architecture.

This work is a study of one of the reliefs on the Arch of Titus (made in 81 CE) and preserves some of the composition of the Roman original that has since been destroyed. It presents the moments after the Romans sacked the temple in Jerusalem and carried Jewish captives and religious objects back to Rome. Its refined detail and linear quality are enlivened by Moitte’s adept draftsmanship. His most successful sculptural works were produced in the same format—multifigure or portrait reliefs—on public monuments in Paris. After teaching at the national school of fine arts in Paris, Moitte returned to Rome in 1796. In the wake of Napoleon’s victory in Italy, he and other high-ranking officials of the arts of France were instructed to seize works from the Capitoline and Vatican museums. Masterworks such as the Apollo Belvedere and the Laocoön were delivered to Paris and paraded around the streets before entering the Louvre, not unlike the procession of spoils depicted in this small study. In 1815, following Napoleon’s defeat, the sculptures were returned to Italy.

2025
Selected Bibliography: Schaefer, Scott, and Peter Fusco. European Painting and Sculpture in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: an Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987.

Jean-Guillaume Moitte
Spoils of the Temple: After a Relief from the Arch of Titus, Romecirca 1791

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Classical Revivals in Europe and America

Artist or Maker: Jean-Guillaume Moitte
France, Paris, 1746-1810, active Italy, Rome
Title: Spoils of the Temple: After a Relief from the Arch of Titus, Rome
Date Made: circa 1791
Medium: Earthenware
Dimensions: 14 × 23 1/2 × 2 1/2 in. (35.56 × 59.69 × 6.35 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Camilla Chandler Frost
Accession Number: M.79.49
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: In the second half of the eighteenth century, a trip to Rome was not only essential for members of the educated upper class but a prerequisite to artistic success. Artists in training at the French Academy who demonstrated sufficient talent received scholarships for residencies in Rome to study antiquities and the works of Renaissance masters. Jean-Guillaume Moitte won such a scholarship, the Prix de Rome, in 1768. He lived in the city from 1771 to 1773, engaging with the methods and subjects of classical art and architecture.

This work is a study of one of the reliefs on the Arch of Titus (made in 81 CE) and preserves some of the composition of the Roman original that has since been destroyed. It presents the moments after the Romans sacked the temple in Jerusalem and carried Jewish captives and religious objects back to Rome. Its refined detail and linear quality are enlivened by Moitte’s adept draftsmanship. His most successful sculptural works were produced in the same format—multifigure or portrait reliefs—on public monuments in Paris. After teaching at the national school of fine arts in Paris, Moitte returned to Rome in 1796. In the wake of Napoleon’s victory in Italy, he and other high-ranking officials of the arts of France were instructed to seize works from the Capitoline and Vatican museums. Masterworks such as the Apollo Belvedere and the Laocoön were delivered to Paris and paraded around the streets before entering the Louvre, not unlike the procession of spoils depicted in this small study. In 1815, following Napoleon’s defeat, the sculptures were returned to Italy.

2025
Selected Bibliography: Schaefer, Scott, and Peter Fusco. European Painting and Sculpture in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: an Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987.