Ostia

Title

Ostia

Description

Decorative view of the ancient city of Ostia and the former harbour of the antique city of Rome at the Tiber delta.

ca. 1650

Artist

Merian (1593-1650)

Matthäus Merian (1593 – 1650) , born in Basel, learned the art of copperplate engraving in Zurich and subsequently worked and studied in Strasbourg, Nancy, and Paris, before returning to Basel in 1615. The following year he moved to Frankfurt, Germany where he worked for the publisher Johann Theodor de Bry. He married his daughter, Maria Magdalena 1617. In 1620 they moved back to Basel, only to return three years later to Frankfurt, where Merian took over the publishing house of his father-in-law after de Bry's death in 1623. In 1626 he became a citizen of Frankfurt and could henceforth work as an independent publisher. He is the father of Maria Sibylla Merian, who later published her the famous and wellknown studies of flowers, insects and butterflies.

Historical Description

Ostia Antica was the port city of ancient Rome and is frequently mentioned in writings from the time of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Ostia Antica was particularly important for Christian posterity because it was here that St. Monica ,the mother of St. Augustine, died in 387 in a house belonging to the Roman diocese while on her way back to Africa after Augustine's conversion to Christianity. An important aspect of 19th century Italian nationalism was the veneration of the glorious Roman past, expressed in the desire to revive or recreate various sites and institutions associated with ancient Rome. In 1871, the city of Rome became the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy. A revival of Ostia was an obvious next step. The modern district of Ostia was founded in 1884 near the remains of Ostia Antica. This was possible after the nearby marshy area, infested with malarial mosquitoes, had been reclaimed. The first inhabitants were farmers who came from Ravenna in Romagna. With the opening of the Roma-Ostia light rail line in 1924, the new village soon became a popular seaside resort for Romans, and numerous Art Nouveau houses were built on the shore.