TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS THE HUNTRESS: FRANÇOIS FOUQUET'S RECONSTRUCTION OF A LOST ATHENIAN TEMPLE

The Temple of Artemis the Huntress — the small Ionic temple that once stood on the banks of the Ilissus in Athens — survives today only through eighteenth-century drawings and the models made from them, since the building itself was demolished centuries ago. François Fouquet's plaster reconstruction, acquired by Sir John Soane in 1834, is one of the most admired pieces in Soane's collection, and one Soane himself praised in his own lectures as a model of architectural refinement.

Probably designed by Callicrates, the architect also credited with the Temple of Athena Nike on the Acropolis, the temple was recorded by James Stuart and Nicholas Revett in their landmark survey The Antiquities of Athens before it disappeared — making Fouquet's model, based directly on their published plates, one of the closest things that survives to an accurate record of the building's original form.

This model is produced by Chisel & Mouse under licence with Sir John Soane's Museum, and is a faithful reproduction of the original in the Museum's collection.

  • Written by Gavin Paisley, director & model-maker at Chisel & Mouse based in Sussex, England.
  • Last updated: 21-Sep-26

Photograph by Stuart and Revett, licensed under PD-US via Wikimedia Commons.

Temple of Artemis the Huntress architectural scale model

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What is the Temple of Artemis the Huntress?

The Temple of Artemis the Huntress — also known as the Temple on the Ilissus, or the Temple of Artemis Agrotera — was a small Ionic temple that once stood on the banks of the river Ilissus, just outside the walls of ancient Athens. It is generally attributed, probably, to Callicrates, one of the architects of the Parthenon and sole architect of the Temple of Athena Nike. The temple no longer exists: it survived long enough to be carefully drawn and measured by the British architects James Stuart and Nicholas Revett for their pioneering survey The Antiquities of Athens, first published in 1762, but was subsequently demolished, leaving their drawings as the primary record of its appearance.

Fouquet's model, based directly on plates from Stuart and Revett's survey, was one of twenty plaster reconstructions Sir John Soane purchased in 1834. It has remained in the Soane Museum's collection ever since, catalogued as MR28, and is on public display in the Model Room today.

Facts panel

Ionic temple, banks of the Ilissus, Athens (demolished). Model in the Sir John Soane's Museum collection.

  • Architect (probable): Callicrates
  • Original temple built: 5th century BC
  • Location: Banks of the Ilissus, Athens (no longer standing)
  • Primary historical record: James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, The Antiquities of Athens (1762)
  • Model-maker: Originally Jean-Pierre Fouquet, for the École Polytechnique, Paris; this version by his son François Fouquet
  • Model created: c. 1800–1834
  • Acquired by Sir John Soane: 1834, from the architect Edward Cresy
  • Museum number: MR28, Sir John Soane's Museum, London
  • Architectural style: Ancient Greek Ionic
  • This reproduction: Produced by Chisel & Mouse under licence with Sir John Soane's Museum

The model-maker: François Fouquet and Sir John Soane

François Fouquet (1787–1870) was a Parisian model-maker working in the tradition established by his father, Jean-Pierre Fouquet, who had made an earlier version of this very reconstruction for the École Polytechnique in Paris. Between roughly 1800 and 1834, François Fouquet made his own series of exquisite plaster-of-Paris models reconstructing ancient monuments as they would have looked when new, working directly from the best available published sources — in this case, plates I to VIII of chapter II of Stuart and Revett's Antiquities of Athens, using a rare 1793 French translation of which Sir John Soane's Museum holds the only known surviving copy.

In 1834, Sir John Soane — designer of the Bank of England and one of the era's great collectors of architectural knowledge — purchased twenty of Fouquet's models from the architect Edward Cresy, who had been working in Paris and had acquired them directly. Soane installed them in a new Model Room on the second floor of his house at 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, where the Ilissus temple model remains one of the collection's most celebrated pieces.

Architectural character: simplicity Soane himself admired

The Temple on the Ilissus was, even in its own time, a modest building by the standards of Athens's grander monuments — a small, elegantly proportioned Ionic temple, its beauty lying in restraint rather than scale. Sir John Soane knew the building only through Stuart and Revett's published plates, since it had already vanished by his lifetime, yet it became one of his favourite examples of classical design. In his second Royal Academy lecture, delivered as Professor of Architecture, Soane singled it out for particular praise, writing that "nothing can surpass the extreme simplicity and elegance of this composition." He went on to admire the building's beautifully proportioned columns, its distinctive angular capitals, and the restraint of its entablature — qualities he saw as evidence of the refined taste of the civilisation that produced it.

Fouquet's model brings that praise into physical form: a compact, Ionic composition with columns, angular capitals, and simple entablature reconstructed directly from Stuart and Revett's careful measured drawings, making it one of the more historically faithful pieces in the entire Soane collection.

Photograph by Stuart and Revett, licensed under PD-US via Wikimedia Commons.

History: a temple recorded just before its loss

The Temple on the Ilissus survived long enough into the eighteenth century to be measured and drawn by James Stuart and Nicholas Revett as part of their landmark survey of Athenian antiquities, published in 1762, but was demolished not long afterwards, leaving their plates as the only detailed record of its design. A first model reconstruction was made by Jean-Pierre Fouquet for the École Polytechnique in Paris; his son François later produced this version, working from the same published source, sometime before 1834.

That year, Sir John Soane purchased Fouquet's model along with nineteen others from the architect Edward Cresy, installing them in his newly created Model Room at 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields. The model survived a period of real risk during the Second World War, when three of Fouquet's other models were damaged by bomb blast in October 1940, and remains on public display in Soane's Model Room today — one of the museum's most admired pieces, and a rare physical record of a building that otherwise exists only on paper.

Cultural significance

The Temple on the Ilissus occupies an unusual place in architectural history: a building almost nobody alive has ever seen, known chiefly through eighteenth-century drawings and the models made from them, yet still capable of inspiring genuine admiration from an architect as accomplished as Sir John Soane. Fouquet's reconstruction, and Soane's evident affection for it, are a reminder that architectural influence does not require a building to survive — sometimes a careful drawing, and a careful model made from it, is enough to keep a design alive in the imagination of everyone who studies it afterwards.

The model-maker's lens

  • Focus — the whole temple, reproducing Fouquet's reconstruction in full: the Ionic columns, angular capitals, and simple entablature that Soane himself so admired.
  • Detail — the columns are 3D printed for precision, set against hand-cast plaster, echoing Fouquet's own meticulous original.
  • How it reads at small scale — beautifully; the temple's restrained, classical proportions are exactly the qualities Soane praised in the original, and they translate naturally into a compact tabletop object.
  • How to display — as a set alongside our Mylasa and Palmyra reproductions from the same Soane's Museum collection, or as a standalone piece for anyone with an interest in classical Greek architecture.
  • How we made it — produced under licence with Sir John Soane's Museum, cast in plaster with 3D-printed columns and set on a felt base.

View the Temple of Artemis the Huntress architectural model

Visiting the original

Fouquet's original Ilissus temple model remains on display in the Model Room at Sir John Soane's Museum, 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London — accessible by pre-booked tour only. The ancient temple itself no longer stands; Stuart and Revett's published drawings, and Soane's own writings on the building, remain the best way to encounter its original design.

Frequently asked questions about the Temple of Artemis the Huntress

Who made the Temple of Artemis the Huntress model?

The original plaster model was made by the French model-maker François Fouquet (1787–1870), based on an earlier version by his father Jean-Pierre Fouquet, and was one of twenty models purchased by Sir John Soane in 1834.

Does the original Temple of Artemis the Huntress still exist?

No. The temple, which once stood on the banks of the Ilissus in Athens, was demolished sometime after being recorded by James Stuart and Nicholas Revett in their 1762 survey The Antiquities of Athens — the source Fouquet used to build his model.

Who designed the original temple?

It is probably the work of Callicrates, one of the architects associated with the Parthenon and the sole architect credited with the Temple of Athena Nike on the Acropolis.

Why did Sir John Soane admire this building so much?

Soane knew the temple only from published drawings, yet praised it in his own Royal Academy lectures for the simplicity and elegance of its composition, its beautifully proportioned columns, and its refined, restrained detailing.

Is this an original Fouquet model?

No. Chisel & Mouse's model is a faithful reproduction, made under licence with Sir John Soane's Museum. The original, dating from around 1800–1834, remains in the Museum's Model Room in London.

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Sources and further reading

  • Sir John Soane's Museum — Collections Online, 'Model of the ancient Greek Ionic temple on the Illisus, near Athens' (MR28) — https://collections.soane.org/object-mr28
  • James Stuart and Nicholas Revett — The Antiquities of Athens (1762)