The artist and printmaker Filippo Morghen and the painter Antonio Joli both worked in Naples, at that time under the enlightened rule of the Bourbon kings Charles II and Ferdinand VII. Morghen made prints for the published volumes of the antiquities of Herculaneum, and he rendered the images of Paestum made by Joli in the 1760s into a small portfolio of prints. This was dedicated to Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron of Baltimore—an unsavory character who was reputed to have kept a harem in Istanbul and who had no interest in Maryland except to enjoy the revenues it provided. In keeping with its didactic intent, the Joli–Morghen publication included a lengthy explanation of the images.