Antiquities of Greece & Rome

Antiquities of

Greece & Rome

Sanders of Oxford

Antique Prints & Maps 104 High Street, Oxford. OX1 4BW info@sandersofoxford.com - 01865 242590 - www.sandersofoxford.com

Oxford University has one of the finest Classics departments in the world and off the back of this our location at the heart of the University City has allowed us to continually deal in prints of Classical antiquity. However we are pleased to present our first formal catalogue on the subject, offering a brief overview of the celebrated decorative, architectural and archaeological achievements of ancient Greece and Rome from some of the key publications of the 17th and 18th centuries.

GREECE Hamilton’s Vases (1-15) Passeri’s ‘Etruscan’ Vases (16-28) Godin’s plans of Greek cities, from the Voyages of the Young Anarchasis (29-37) ROME Bartoli’s Etchings of Roman Relief Sculpture (38-55) Rossi’s Views of Rome’s Lost Wonders (56-80)

Hamilton’s Vases The Collection of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Hon. Wm. Hamilton, His Britannick Majesty’s Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at the Court of Naples was a monumental work, documenting the first of the two major collections of predominantly Greek vases amassed by Sir William Hamilton, during his tenure as the British Envoy to the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily. The first volume, sumptuously adorned with hand-coloured plates by Morelli, was published in 1766 in an edition of 500 subscriber copies, costing the princely sum of £6000 to produce. A second volume was published the following year, and eventually followed by a third and fourth.

The work caused an immediate sensation in England, even before its publication. Although works documenting the subjects of ancient vase painting had been produced before Hamilton, the Collection was the first to present ancient vase painting as being of artistic merit in its own right.

Hamilton’s original intention in collection the vases, as he states in the introduction, was not due to any attempt at connoisseurship, but because he had seen the potential value of such a collection as a model for modern artists. Earlier works, while relatively thorough in describing the paintings from an antiquarian perspective, had not depicted them with the elegance and beauty of Hamilton’s publication.

The greatest artistic legacy of the Collection can be seen in the pottery of Josiah Wedgewood, who saw, as Hamilton had predicted, the ideal subject material for a new aesthetic in British pottery. The proofs shown him by Hamilton’s brother in law, Lord Cathcart, provided Wedgewood with the perfect edge on his competitors, who had to wait for the book’s publication the following year.

Despite Hamilton not considering himself an antiquarian, the Collection had almost as great an impact in academic circles as it did in artistic. The lavish illustrations were accompanied by parallel explanatory text in English and French, discussing, among other things, the origin and provenance of many of Hamilton’s vases, and providing academics across Europe with a far greater range of material than had previously been available in the debate about the origins, whether Etruscan or Greek, of black and red-figure vase-painting.

The text itself, written by Hamilton’s friend, PierreFrancois Hugues, Baron d’Hancarville, was even contributed to by no less a scholar than Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the most celebrated arthistorian and Hellenist of the day.

Despite its illustrious pedigree, the sheer cost involved in the publication of the Collection pushed Hamilton to the very limit of his means, and was probably a contributing factor in his decision to sell much of this first collection to the British Museum in 1772. It was also a strain on the finances of Hamilton’s fellow-contributor, Baron d’Hancarville, who was forced to flee Naples to escape his creditors, though succeeded in restoring his fortunes somewhat with the publication of two pornographic texts on classical subjects. Regardless of the expense, the Collection continued to be held in high esteem, being reissued in various forms throughout the next century, and forming the model for Tischbein’s five volume publication of Hamilton’s second collection.

The Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases, Mostly of Pure Greek Workmanship, discovered in Sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, but chiefly in the neighbourhood of Naples during the course of the years MDCCLXXXIX and MDCCLXXXX, now in the Possession of Sir Wm. Hamilton, His Britannic Majestaty’s Envoy Extry. and Plenipotentiary at the court of Naples, with Remarks on each Vase by the Collector was put together by Tischbein to document the second, and equally significant, vase collection of Sir William Hamilton. Following the sale of his first collection to the British Museum, Hamilton began assembling another selection of ancient vases, spurred on, as he describes in the introduction to this second work, by the recent and increasing taste for classical vase painting in Britain, and aided by the removal

by King Ferdinand IV of Naples of the ban on archaeological excavation in the region.

Unlike the sumptuously illustrated publication of Hamilton’s first collection, the collector’s aim for this second publication was for a much wider readership. In particular, Hamilton was keen that the work be accessible to artists, as the prohibitive costs of the first set of volumes had meant that in most circumstances they were available only to wealthy connoisseurs, antiquarians, and learned societies.

This was not to say that any expense had been spared in the second book’s preparation. Tischbein’s engravings were praised by Hamilton for their precision and accuracy, and the accompanying text, provided by Hamilton himself, was thoroughly and meticulously assembled. The greatest difference lay in the fact that the plates of this second work were left uncoloured at publication, with Hamilton noting that it was his hope that in so doing, artists could gain a much stronger impression of the use of line by the ancient vase-painters, while connoisseurs, if they so desired, could have the plates coloured in the style of his earlier book. The resulting publication stretched to 4 volumes, plus a supplement, all of which were heavily illustrated.

Academically, this second book also improved upon antiquarian understanding and interpretation of classical vases. Where the first work had ascribed much of Hamilton’s collection to the Etruscans, this second book brought Hamilton’s collections up to date with current scholarship, with Hamilton himself accepting in the preface that the majority of his Southern Italian vases were without doubt the product of Greek workmanship. The plates themselves proved to be of particular importance some seven years later. In 1798, with the shadow of Napoleon and the French revolutionary army looming large in Bourbon Naples, Hamilton packed up his vase collection in order to return to England.

Unfortunately, the ship detailed to transport his collection, the HMS Colossus, was wrecked off the Isles of Scilly, taking eight crates of Hamilton’s vases down with it. Until the rediscovery of the wreck in the 1960’s, Tischbein’s plates were the only record of some of Hamilton’s prize pieces. Upon arrival in England, the remainder of Hamilton’s collection was destined for auction at Christies, but was sold instead to the flamboyant connoisseur, orientalist, and interior decorator, Thomas Hope.

Ironically, Hope stored his newly aquired Greek vases in a purpose designed ‘Etruscan Room,’ where they remained until their sale at Christies in 1917. As a result, examples from Hamilton’s second collection can now be seen in many of the world’s museums, including the British Museum, the Ashmolean, the Fitzwilliam, the Louvre, the Met, and the Boston Museum of Fine Art. Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803) was a British diplomat, antiquarian, connoisseur, and pioneering vulcanologist, who served as British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples between 1764 and 1800.

While in Naples, Hamilton amassed two large and impressive collections of classical vases, the majority of which came from the excavations of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the other ancient towns surrounding Mount Vesuvius. In addition to his antiquarian interests, Hamilton was also elected to the Royal Society for his studies of volcanic activity in Sicily and the Campi Phlegraei. Despite frequently being lampooned as a cognoscento by contemporary satirists like Gillray, Hamilton did not consider himself to be an antiquarian, even going so far as to lampoon the latter himself, by teaching his pet monkey to carry a magnifying glass in the manner of a connoisseur. Despite his achievements in archaeology, art history, and natural history, Hamilton is best known as a cuckold, his second wife, Lady Emma Hamilton, having embarked on an infamous affair with Nelson.

Francesco Morelli (fl. 1766-1830) was a FrenchItalian publisher, engraver, and painter. He is best known for his work on antiquarian subjects, particularly Pompeiian and Neapolitan subjects. In addition to publishing and probably engraving the plates for the catalogue of vases in the collection of Sir William Hamilton, he also produced a series of engravings of the so-called Villa of Horace near Licenza.

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (15th February 1751 - 26th February 1828) was a German painter, engraver, publisher and art historian. A member of the large Tischbein family of artists, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm is often known as the ‘Goethe’ Tischbein, after the famous portrait of Goethe in the Roman Campana, painted while the artist was travelling with the famous writer on the latter’s tour to Naples in 1787. Following this tour, Tischbein remained in Italy, serving as Master of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli. In this capacity, he worked alongside Sir William Hamilton, British Envoy to the Kingdom of Naples, to produce a catalogue of masterpieces from Hamilton’s second collection of classical vases.

The resulting work was published in five volumes between 1791 and 1795. Hamilton hailed Tischbein in the book’s preface as ‘an Artist of the First Class.’

He left Naples in 1799, at the establishment of the anti-royalist Parthenopean Republic, and for the rest of his life remained in the service of Peter I, Grand Duke of Oldenburg.

1. Plate 72 [Herm and Altar] Francesco Morelli Copper engraving with original hand colouring [Naples, Francesco Morelli, 1767] Image 150 x 160 mm, Plate 156 x 167 mm, Sheet 475 x 317 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase decoration of a herm, Plate 72 from Volume 2 of the Collection of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Hon. Wm. Hamilton, His Britannick Majesty’s Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at the Court of Naples. The herm is of the common archaizing type, with the bust of the god Hermes depicted bearded and long haired, and wearing a fillet. The prominent erect phallus of the Herm hearkens back to Hermes’ early role as a god of fertility, luck, and boundaries. Because of this association, hermai were often found on land boundaries, roadways, and crossroads.

Their apotropaic quality was also increased by their quadrangular shape, as the number four was sacred to Hermes. To the right of the herm, a low altar stands before a wall decorated with images of another herm, and an ithyphallic satyr.

Condition: Manuscript plate number ‘72’ to top right corner of plate. Vertical and horizontal folds to margins from previous framing, not affecting image.

[40519] £275

2. Plate 127 [Hercules in the Garden of the Hesperides] Francesco Morelli Copper engraving with original hand colouring [Naples, Francesco Morelli, 1766] Image 230 x 488 mm, Plate 257 x 497 mm, Sheet 307 x 560 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase decoration of Hercules in the Garden of the Hesperides, Plate 127 from Volume 1 of the Collection of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Hon. Wm. Hamilton, His Britannick Majesty’s Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at the Court of Naples. Hercules is depicted as a young man, naked, and seated on the skin of the Nemean Lion. His right arm rests against his knotted club. His companions, armed with spears, flank the scene. In the centre, the Hesperides, daughters of the evening, gather around a tree, in which the serpent Ladon is coiled. The nymph immediately before Hercules holds one of the golden apples in her left hand.

Scenes of Hercules reposing in the Garden were popular choices for the Southern Italian red-figure market. According to some versions of the myth,

Hercules completed his Eleventh Labour by tricking Atlas into revealing the location of the garden, before slaying Ladon and retrieving the fabled golden apples. The location of the Garden of the Hesperides was of great interest to mythographers and geographers, ancient and modern alike. Most authors placed them in the Atlas mountains in North Africa, though the southern Iberian peninsula or even the Canary Islands were also popular suggestions. By the Roman period, they had become a popular poetic device for any idyllic, paradisiacal landscape.

Condition: Central vertical fold as issued. Minor time-toning to sheet.

[40535] ÂŁ600

3. Plate 16 [Faun and Bacchant dancing] Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein Copper engraving with hand colouring Published by M.W. Tischbein, Director of the Royal Academy of Painting at Naples MDCCLXXXXI. Image 155 x 242 mm, Plate 176 x 264 mm, Sheet 490 x 375 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase decoration of a faun or satyr dancing with a bacchant, Plate 16 from Volume 1 of the Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases, Mostly of Pure Greek Workmanship, discovered in Sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The bacchant, wearing a diaphanous, loose-fitting garment, reaches back towards the bald-headed, bearded faun. As Hamilton notes is his remarks for the plate, this scene is one of the few illustrations of a scene from the back of one of his vases, most of which he omitted from the book.

The sheer liveliness of the characters and their composition inspired their inclusion.

Scenes featuring fauns, satyrs, maenads, and bacchants are among the most common found in ancient Greek vase painting. As the majority of these vessels were intended for use in some aspect of ancient dining, it is unsurprising that most feature scenes that are in some way connected with Bacchus or Dionysus, the god of wine and feasting.

Condition: Excellent crisp impression on full sheet.

Minor time-toning to sheet.

[40537] ÂŁ200

4. Plate 22 [Apotheosis of Hercules] Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein Copper engraving with hand colouring Published by M.W. Tischbein, Director of the Royal Academy of Painting at Naples MDCCLXXXXI. Image 167 x 270 mm, Plate 198 x 300 mm, Sheet 490 x 375 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase decoration of the apotheosis of Hercules, Plate 22 from Volume 1 of the Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases, Mostly of Pure Greek Workmanship, discovered in Sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The scene depicted takes place after Hercules’ death.

The hero, garlanded, stands at centre, holding a low-stemmed kylix by its handle, and resting his arm of his knotted club. Behind him, the god Mercury, identifiable by the winged cap at his back, reclines on a cloud, in readiness to guide the soul of Hercules to the realm of the gods. The winged figure speaking to Hercules is Hebe, sent to confirm Hercules’ godhood by presenting him with a pitcher of ambrosia, the nectar of Olympus. To one side, Hercules nephew and companion Iolaus stands armed with a pair of spears. Hamilton notes that this particular vase was found in a sepulchre in Capua.

Hercules death is an important event in a number of mythic cycles. According to most versions of the myth, as a final act of revenge, the dying centaur Nessus gave his bloodstained shirt to Hercules wife, Deianeira, promising that it would be a powerful aphrodisiac. In fact, the centaurs blood was tainted with the venom of the Hydra. Hercules himself had used the venom to tip the arrows with which he had slain Nessus. Upon putting on the shirt, the hero was doomed to a painful lingering death, as his skin and flesh began to melt from his bones.

Hastening his own death, Hercules built a pyre, upon which he was burned, but through the intervention of the gods, he was taken up to Olympus and became a god. While in some versions of the myth, the pyre was lit by Hercules’ companion Iolaus, in the Homeric cycle this was done by Philoctetes.

As thanks, Philoctetes received the hero’s bow and poisoned arrows, with which he would eventually slay the Trojan prince Paris.

Condition: Excellent crisp impression on full sheet.

Minor time-toning to sheet.

[40540] £220

5. Plate 28 [Apollo and Manto] Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein Copper engraving with hand colouring Published by M.W. Tischbein, Director of the Royal Academy of Painting at Naples MDCCLXXXXI. Image 188 x 272 mm, Plate 208 x 293 mm, Sheet 490 x 375 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase decoration of the god Apollo and the prophetess Manto, Plate 28 from Volume 1 of the Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases, Mostly of Pure Greek Workmanship, discovered in Sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Apollo, bare-chested and armed with a bow, sits upon the famous Tripod of his cult-centre in Delphi. In an upraised hand, he holds a patera, and prepares to pour a libation. A small laurel tree, sacred to Apollo, grows behind the tripod, and the god himself is garlanded with sprigs of laurel leaves at his temples. Manto, depicted here as a younger girl, reaches one hand out to the god, while holding the folds of her dress in the other. Behind the tripod stands a female attendant, probably one of Apollo’s Delphic priestesses. Hamilton notes that the vase itself was discovered near Capua.

In Greek mythology, Manto was a talented prophetess, daughter of the blind seer Tiresias. In her youth, she was sent to Delphi as a hostage during the War of the Epigoni, where her oracular talents made her a darling of Apollo, god of prophesy. Her devotion to the god meant that she was selected to travel to the city of Colophon in Asia Minor, where her son Mopsus would come to be hailed as the most gifted seer in the Greek world. In Roman versions of the myth, Manto travelled to Italy instead, where she gave birth to a son who in turn founded the city of Mantua, the home of Virgil and Dante.

Condition: Excellent crisp impression on full sheet.

Minor time-toning to sheet.

[40541] ÂŁ200

6. Plate 32 [Bacchus in the Grotto of Nile] Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein Copper engraving with hand colouring Published by M.W. Tischbein, Director of the Royal Academy of Painting at Naples MDCCLXXXXI. Image 195 x 288 mm, Plate 212 x 300 mm, Sheet 490 x 373 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase decoration of Dionysus and retinue in Egypt, Plate 32 from Volume 1 of the Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases, Mostly of Pure Greek Workmanship, discovered in Sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The youthful Dionysus is depicted at centre, bare-chested, long-haired, garlanded with vine leaves, and resting his thyrsus in the crook of his right arm. He speaks to a winged genius, identified

by Hamilton as a personification of akratos, unmixed wine. The pair are enclosed within the grotto of Nilus, the river-god of Egypt. The other figures in the scene are interpreted by Hamilton as other members of the Dionysiac thiasus (procession). A silenus, identifiable by his tail, pointed ears, and vine-topped staff, rests languidly on the threshold of the grotto, flanked by a pair of nymphs, either Baccha and Bromia, or two of the Hyades. The seated youth to left of the scene is identified by

Hamilton as the minor god Aristaeus, god of culture, bee-keeping, and cheesemaking.

Dionysus or Bacchus was the Greek god of wine.

Unlike most of the Greek pantheon, Dionysus was not autochthonous, with most versions of his origin myth having him arrive in the Greek world from India, or less commonly, Egypt, Libya, or Ethiopia.

He was seen as a bringer of culture, sophistication, and luxury. The son of Zeus, Dionysus was raised by the nymphs Baccha and Bromia, from whom come two of his alternative names, Bacchus and Bromios.

Indeed, even the name Dionysus is an epithet, meaning simply ‘God of Nysa.’ Like many classical gods, Dionysus also had a darker side. The result of excessive consumption of wine was madness, and for that reason, depictions of Dionysus’ revels often feature both the positive and negative aspects of his gifts. Dionysus was also one of many saviour gods, owing to the prominent elements of death and resurrection in his mythology.

Condition: Excellent crisp impression on full sheet.

Time-toning to sheet. Minor losses to upper right edge of sheet, not affecting plate or image.

[40542] £220

7. Plate 33 [Faun, Priestess, and Supplicant at an Oracular Shire] Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein Copper engraving with hand colouring Published by M.W. Tischbein, Director of the Royal Academy of Painting at Naples MDCCLXXXXI. Image 171 x 245 mm, Plate 188 x 260 mm, Sheet 490 x 375 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase decoration of an oracular shrine, Plate 33 from Volume 1 of the Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases, Mostly of Pure Greek Workmanship, discovered in Sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The shrine, identifiable by the column, tripod, and lyre of Apollo depicted at centre, is occupied by three figures. To the right of the scene, a young man stands. He is naked apart from a traveller’s cloak, which is draped over his shoulder. He is garlanded with laurel, and holds a long staff made of another branch of laurel. At centre, a faun sits on the stump of a tree, playing a double-piped aulos. Behind him, the woman holding a torch is likely the priestess of the shrine, who prepares to deliver an oracular response to the young man.

Hamilton’s notes for this particular scene are extensive. As the faun is a product of southern Italian mythology, he discards the possibility of the scene representing a location in Greece. His suggestion instead is Pallantium, the Greek settlement built by the hero Evander on the Palatine Hill of Rome.

Evander’s settlement in Italy was made with the blessing of Faunus, the local king of the Latins, owing to the fact that both heroes traced their origins to Arcadia, the idyllic rural wilderness of Greece.

Faunus, upon his death, underwent apotheosis, becoming a Greco-Latin god of forests, wilderness, and prophesy. His mythic followers, the fauns, were said to speak and sing in prophetic ‘Saturnine’ verses, and it is evidently in this capacity that the faun is included in the scene on this vase, assisting Apollo’s priestess with the giving of oracles.

Condition: Excellent crisp impression on full sheet.

Minor time-toning to sheet.

[40543] £200

8. Plate 34 [Marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne] Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein Copper engraving with hand colouring Published by M.W. Tischbein, Director of the Royal Academy of Painting at Naples MDCCLXXXXI. Image 183 x 282 mm, Plate 208 x 303 mm, Sheet 490 x 376 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase decoration of the marriage of Dionysus and Ariadne, Plate 34 from Volume 1 of the Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases, Mostly of Pure Greek Workmanship, discovered in Sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The couple are seated at centre, attended by a faun, and Hymen, the god of marriage. Bacchus is dressed in a sumptuously patterned robe, and sits upon a leopard skin, an attribute intended to indicate his eastern origins. In his right hand, he holds a thyrsus, in his left, a patera. His bride, her patterned robe pulled up to cover her hair, also holds a thyrsus.

To the left of the scene, the attendant faun prepares to fill Dionysus’ patera from a small pitcher, so that the god may pour the customary marital libation.

Meanwhile, Hymen, preparing to sing the marital hymn, hands a quince to the attentive Ariadne.

Hamilton’s commentary notes that the quince was a traditional Greek symbol for conjugal peace. The vase was discovered in a Capuan sepulchre.

Considering the tempestuous love lives of most classical gods, the union of Dionysus and Ariadne is one of very few examples of a relatively faithful and happy marriage. The circumstances of their marriage are best known from the Greek poet Hesiod. Ariadne was the daughter of Minos of Crete, and through her mother Pasiphae, a descendant of the sun god Helios. Having helped Theseus navigate his way through the labyrinth and slay the Minotaur, Ariadne accompanied him on his return to Athens. In Naxos, she was abandoned by Theseus while she slept. The god Dionysus, passing Naxos with his retinue, fell in love with Ariadne and married her. Ariadne bore a number of Dionysus’ children, foremost amongst them being Oenopion, the personification of wine, and Staphylus, god of grapes. Following her death, Dionysus travelled to the underworld, where he rescued both Ariadne and his mother Semele, and placed them amongst the stars.

Condition: Excellent crisp impression on full sheet.

Minor time-toning to sheet.

[40544] £220

9. Plate 37 [Faun and Priestess offering a deerskin] Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein Copper engraving with hand colouring Published by M.W. Tischbein, Director of the Royal Academy of Painting at Naples MDCCLXXXXI. Image 166 x 164 mm, Plate 186 x 185 mm, Sheet 490 x 374 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase decoration of a Faun and Priestess offering the skin of a sacrificial deer to Dionysus, Plate 37 from Volume 1 of the Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases, Mostly of Pure Greek Workmanship, discovered in Sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The priestess, wearing an embroidered, sleeveless dress, and with her hair tied up in a turban, bends down to drape the skin of the deer on the stump of a fig-tree, which, along with the vine, was the sacred plant of Dionysus.

To the left of the scene, an elderly faun watches.

In his hand, he carries a vine-topped thyrsus and a kantharos, the wine-cup most often associated with Dionysus. Between the figures, a small inscription indicates that the scene was the work of the painter Alcimachus.

Sacrifices to Dionysus, god of wine, were frequently made in the form of a libation, usually of wine, but also water or honeyed milk. In terms of animal sacrifice, game animals were seen as the most appropriate, due to the god’s connection with wilderness. In many versions of the myths, acolytes of Dionysus’ retinue were seen to be inspired by a divine madness, fleeing cities and settlements in favour of an existence in the wilds. The maenads in particular are depicted thus, catching deer, rabbits and other animals, sacrificing them, and consuming them raw. The most famous example of the chaos of the Bacchic thiasus (procession) is found in the Bacchae of the playwright Euripides, in which Pentheus, king of Thebes, is killed and partially eaten by his own mother in the height of her Dionysiac frenzy.

Condition: Excellent crisp impression on full sheet.

Minor time-toning to sheet.

[40551] £200

10. Plate 39 [Three Ithyphalli] Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein Copper engraving with hand colouring Published by M.W. Tischbein, Director of the Royal Academy of Painting at Naples MDCCLXXXXI. Image 170 x 253 mm, Plate 185 x 262 mm, Sheet 490 x 375 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase decoration of three young actors or dancers dressed as sileni, Plate 39 from Volume 1 of the Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases, Mostly of Pure Greek Workmanship, discovered in Sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The three young men wear belted embroidered shorts with erect leather phalli attached to the fronts, as well as tails, and bearded satyr masks. Two of the men are yet to put on their masks, while the third, fully costumed, warms up for the upcoming dance by stretching and balancing lightly on one foot. Behind him is a tympanum (hand drum) decorated with a star-burst pattern.

The Sileni were a prominent part of the Dionysiac thiasus, the ecstatic procession of the followers of Bacchus, god of wine. The original Silenus was a rustic, and the tutor and companion of the young Dionysus.

Like the satyrs, Silenus was often depicted with pointed ears, a tail, and cloven hooves. Where the satyrs have goat-like attributes, sileni were more often depicted as having those of a horse, though the distinction between satyrs and sileni was not always apparent. In most Dionysiac festivals, sileni played an important role as the male counterparts to the human maenads. The role was often taken on by energetic young dancers, whose striking costumes consisted of mask, tail, and a large, erect, red leather phallus, usually worn on a belted and embroidered kilt or animal-skin loincloth.

Condition: Excellent crisp impression on full sheet.

Minor time-toning to sheet.

[40554] ÂŁ220

11. Plate 38 [Initiation to the Eleusinian Mysteries] Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein Copper engraving with hand colouring Published by M.W. Tischbein, Director of the Royal Academy of Painting at Naples MDCCLXXXXI. Image 162 x 253 mm, Plate 191 x 270 mm, Sheet 490 x 375 mm

A depiction of a red-figure vase decoration of an initiation rite at the Mysteries at Eleusis, Plate 38 from Volume 1 of the Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases, Mostly of Pure Greek Workmanship, discovered in Sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Because the central rites of the Eleusinian mysteries were divulged only to initiates, depictions of Eleusinian scenes are usually quite enigmatic.

Hamilton’s description of the vase identifies the scene as an initiation into the Greater Mysteries, at which the acolyte would become a full participant.

The two figures carrying branches are likely Mystai, intermediate initiates of the Lesser Mysteries who have been given permission to witness the Greater, in this circumstance likely to be ensuring that the rite was carried out correctly.

Hamilton notes the inclusion at Eleusis of a group of faun-priests called Ceriques, though whether the figure in this scene is a literal faun or simply a male initiate in costume is unknown. At centre, the presiding priestess of the rite stands on a vine, and holds up a mirror, an attribute of Demeter, god of grain, agriculture, abundance, and the seasons.

The final figure is the initiate herself. Naked, she stands before a lotus flower, a symbol of chastity.

In her hand she holds a patera, from which she will likely drink a kykeon, in this case probably a brew of barley and pennyroyal.

The Eleusinian Mysteries were the most famous and enduring of secret cultic worship in the classical world. Held in Eleusis, a sanctuary in northern Attica, the festivals were held once a year, continuing throughout the Hellenic period and well into the Roman, finally coming to an end with the closing of the sanctuaries in AD 392 by decree of the emperor Theodosius. The central elements of the festival were based upon the mythic cycle of Demeter, goddess of the harvest, and her daughter Persephone, though Bacchic elements were also prominent. In most versions of the myth, the young Persephone was kidnapped by Hades, god of the underworld, and taken to live with him there.

Demeter, distraught at the loss of her daughter, abandoned her agricultural duties and the natural world began to wither and die. Finally, Zeus relented and ordered Hades to release Persephone and allow her to return to her mother. The return of Persephone was heralded with the return of new life to the natural world, thus forming the pattern of the agricultural seasons. First and foremost the Mysteries were an agricultural festival, taking place, like the return of Persephone, at the start of the Greek spring in late February and early March.

Condition: Excellent crisp impression on full sheet.

Minor time-toning to sheet.

[40553] ÂŁ220

12. Plate 40 [Two Servants at the Trieterick Feast] Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein Copper engraving with hand colouring Published by M.W. Tischbein, Director of the Royal Academy of Painting at Naples MDCCLXXXXI. Image 228 x 228 mm, Plate 252 x 248 mm, Sheet 490 x 373 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase decoration of two figures at the feast of a Bacchic trieteric festival, Plate 40 from Volume 1 of the Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases, Mostly of Pure Greek Workmanship, discovered in Sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Hamilton is somewhat unsure as to the nature of this scene in his commentary. He identifies it as one of the festivals to Dionysus held every three years, and thus referred to as ‘trieteric.’ The figures themselves are evidently actors of some description, one in the garb of a faun or satyr, the other, a beautiful youth with garlanded long hair, preparing to put on a mask to take on the character of an elderly slave-woman.

Whether the figures are involved in a religious rite or a theatre performance is difficult to determine. The figure dressed as a faun carries a bucket, perhaps containing lustral water, and both men hold thyrsoi made of ribboned and pine-cone topped stalks of fennel.

Although festivals in honour of Dionysus, god of wine, were a regular part of the annual Greek calendar, in many regions, particularly Boeotia, Elis, and Arcadia, a larger festival was held every three years to commemorate the return of Dionysus after his long absence in India and the Underworld.

In addition to the feasts and secret rites common to most ecstatic cults, festivals of Dionysus also frequently featured theatre performances, particularly the tragicomic satyr-plays.

Condition: Excellent crisp impression on full sheet.

Minor time-toning to sheet.

[40555] £200

13.Plate 41 [A Bacchic Worshipper and His Slave] Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein Copper engraving with hand colouring Published by M.W. Tischbein, Director of the Royal Academy of Painting at Naples MDCCLXXXXI. Image 228 x 231 mm, Plate 250 x 245 mm, Sheet 490 x 375 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase decoration of two actors in a satyr-play, Plate 41 from Volume 1 of the Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases, Mostly of Pure Greek Workmanship, discovered in Sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The two figures are probably involved in a performance at one of the festivals of Dionysus, the most famous of which was the Dionysia in Athens. The longhaired naked youth is a devotee of Dionysus. His hair is garlanded with vine leaves, and he carries a vine-topped thyrsus and a patera. The other actor plays the role of his slave, wearing the standard comic costume for this character, including a widemouthed, snub-nosed mask, a large leather phallus that protrudes obscenely from his short tunic, and a pair of Scythian trousers. On his head, he balances a comically-large basket, containing various offerings destined for the god’s sanctuary. In his other hand, he carries a bucket of lustral water. The scene is evidently set in the countryside, on the road to a rural temple or shrine. Branches decorate the top register of the image, and the uneven roadside features two small dedicatory altars.

The Dionysia was a major festival in the Athenian religious calendar, and second only in importance and extravagance to the Panathenaic festival, in honour of Athena, the city’s patron. The celebration of the festival was actually split into two separate observances, the Rural Dionysia, held at the end of autumn, and the City Dionysia, held to celebrate the end of winter some three months later. The rural festival was the older of the two, and likely had its origins in celebrating the cultivation of the vines. The most important aspect of the festival was a grand possession, where participants would carry different offerings to the various rural shrines and temples of Dionysus in Attica. Baskets, vases, jars of wine, loaves of bread resembling baguettes, fillets of cloth, fresh-water, and other offerings were accompanied by singing, dancing, and theatrical performances by travelling troupes of actors. The City Dionysia involved similar processions, but more notably, five days of theatrical performances in the Theatre of Dionysus on the southern slopes of the Acropolis.

Condition: Excellent crisp impression on full sheet.

Minor time-toning to sheet.

[40556] £200

14. Plate 42 [The Centaur Pholus and a Faun] Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein Copper engraving with hand colouring Published by M.W. Tischbein, Director of the Royal Academy of Painting at Naples MDCCLXXXXI. Image 216 x 214 mm, Plate 250 x 248 mm, Sheet 490 x 376 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase decoration of a centaur and faun in a Dionysiac procession, Plate 42 from Volume 1 of the Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases, Mostly of Pure Greek Workmanship, discovered in Sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The centaur, bearded, wearing a laurel chaplet on his head, and wearing a leopard-skin as a cape, carries the emblems of prophesy and cultic ritual, namely a lit and smoking torch, and a branch of laurel, the sacred tree of Apollo, god of prophesy.

The branch is further ornamented with a woolen ribbon, an oscilla of a satyr, and a trussed bird.

Before him walks a small faun or satyr, likewise garlanded with laurel, and wearing a similar string of beads across his bare chest. In one hand he carries a bud, or perhaps an acorn, and in his other, holds a thyrsus topped with vine-leaves. The scene is evidently set in a rustic sanctuary. Small tufts of grass and vines grow up under the feet of the figures, and the wall behind them is decorated with strands of ribboned vine-leaves. Hamilton in his comments on this vase equates the centaur with Pholus, and suggests a Dionysiac procession due to the inclusion of the faun, the vines, and the leopard skin.

The centaur Pholus is, along with Chiron, the only centaur presented in the Greek myths as possessing elements of civilised behaviour. A minor figure in the myth cycles, Pholus was a friend of Hercules.

When visited by the hero, Pholus opened a jar of specially-fermented wine entrusted to him

by Dionysus. Upon smelling the wine, the other centaurs of Arcadia became frenzied, attacking the pair in their cave. Hercules, aided by his quiver of poisoned arrows, drove them away, but Pholos, either through curiosity or misfortune, pricked himself with the tip of one of the arrows and was killed by the poison. Hamilton suggests that, due to the fact Pholus had been entrusted with Dionysus’ wine, he may have been celebrated as part of the Dionysiac festival of the Pithogia, where the jars of the previous year’s vintage were opened for the first time. In southern Italy, Pholus was also seen as a proto-haruspex, his affinity with nature and the beasts allowing him to determine future events.

Condition: Excellent crisp impression on full sheet.

Minor time-toning to sheet.

[40557] ÂŁ200

15. A Cognocenti contemplating ye Beauties of ye Antique after James Gillray Etching with original hand colouring [c.1820] Image 214 x 159 mm, Sheet 230 x 175 mm A reduced copy of Gillray’s famous satire of William Hamilton, British envoy to the Kingdom of Naples.

Gillray’s caricature was originally published on the 11th of February 1801, probably in response to the return of Hamilton and his wife Emma in October of the previous year after the recapture of Naples by the French. Hamilton is depicted as an old man, stooped, frail, and small. He wears a low crowned top hat and spencer coat, gloves (one of which he has removed), and spurred riding boots. In one hand he holds a cane, and with the other he looks through a pair of spectacles at his collection of antiquities.

The antiquities are a strange assortment of grotesques, broken vases, and objects suggestive of his misplaced interests. On the table before him is a fragmentary bust modelled on his wife Emma, labelled Lais after the famous courtesan of Corinth.

Beside the bust is a headless nude statue of a bacchant, making reference to the famous Attitudes his wife would model for artists such as George Romney, who visited her at her husbands villa on the Bay of Naples. On the other side of the bust, a corpulent cupid cries over his flaccid arrow. Against the wall, a sarcophagus-like object is inscribed ‘Midas’ and features the prominent donkey-ears of this foolish mythic king of Phrygia.

Rounding out the lampoon are a set of four framed paintings on the wall above Hamilton’s head. On the left, a bare-breasted portrait of Emma clutching a bottle of gin acts as the ‘Cleopatra’ to Nelson’s ‘Mark Antony.’ Beside them is a landscape of an erupting volcano, ostensibly referring to Hamilton’s work on Vulcanology for the Royal Society, but also acting as a barely veiled reference to his wife’s inflamed passions. In the right corner, an elderly and forlorn Claudius, clearly representing the oblivious Hamilton, turns his back on the lovers and their volcano.

Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803) was a British diplomat, antiquarian, connoisseur, and pioneering vulcanologist, who served as British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples between 1764 and 1800.

While in Naples, Hamilton amassed two large and impressive collections of classical vases, the majority of which came from the excavations of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the other ancient towns surrounding Mount Vesuvius. In addition to his antiquarian interests, Hamilton was also elected to the Royal Society for his studies of volcanic activity in Sicily and the Campi Phlegraei. Despite frequently being lampooned as a cognoscento by contemporary satirists like Gillray, Hamilton did not consider himself to be an antiquarian, even going so far as to lampoon the latter himself, by teaching his pet monkey to carry a magnifying glass in the manner of a connoisseur. Despite his achievements in archaeology, art history, and natural history, Hamilton is best known as a cuckold, his secondwife, Lady Emma Hamilton, having embarked on an infamous affair with Nelson.

Copy of BM Satires 9753 Condition: Trimmed to border of image. Minor foxing to centre of image.

[40776] £250

Passeri’s ‘Etruscan’ Vases The Picturae Etruscorum in Vasculis (Pictures on small Etruscan vases) was a collection of antiquarian engravings of various red-figure vases, and descriptions of their decoration, undertaken

by Passeri during his time as Antiquary in Chief to Cosimo III de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Its main purpose was to establish the primacy of Italian art and culture in the classical period, and particularly, to assert that the many vases discovered in the Italian peninsula were the product of Etruscan, rather than Greek, artists. The work, one of a number of pamphlets and treatises undertaken by Passeri in his attempts at establishing the primacy of Italy and the Etruscans, had a strong resonance with his Tuscan benefactor.

Academically, Passeri’s accompanying comments to the plates are less useful. When dealing with mythological scenes, he is on the whole consistent with modern identifications, though his comments about scenes of daily life are problematic. His insistence in making the subject matter match his pro-Etruscan theory mean that there are frequent misinterpretations of the athletic, theatrical, and domestic scenes common to many of the vases.

The collection was not published for general readership for almost a century after the artist’s death, and came at a time when a similar focus on Italian primacy in the arts was emerging in the court of Charles of Bourbon, King of Naples and Sicily.

The recent rediscovery of Herculaneum and Pompeii had led to a massive revival in demand for Roman art, and the many vases, frescoes, and artefacts issuing forth from the excavations of the Vesuvian region were of great artistic and antiquarian interest amongst connoisseurs and Grand Tourists. Red-figure vases were particularly de rigueur, with cognoscenti like William Hamilton, the British envoy to the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, amassing huge collections, which were enthusiastically drawn, documented, and discussed.

Passeri’s publication was important, as, aside from documenting some of the very earliest collecting histories of these vases, it also preserves the only record of numerous vases that had already been lost by the time of publication.

Giovanni Battista Passeri (c.1610 – 22nd April 1679) was an Italian painter, art historian, writer, and academic. Although primarily known as a biographer, documenting the lives and works of many of his contemporaries in the world of Baroque sculpture, painting, and architecture, he was also an accomplished artist in his own right, specialising in still-lifes and genre paintings. Later in life, he was made director of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, and served as antiquary to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. It was in this later role that he produced a series of copper engravings of antiquities, particularly red-figure ‘Etruscan’ vases.

16. T. CLXI: In Museo D. Hadriani Sarri Patric.

Sen. Giovanni Battista Passeri Copper engraving with hand colouring Romae, MDCCLXX. Ex Typographio Johannis Zempel. [1770] Image 280 x 156 mm, Plate 307 x 176 mm, Sheet 397 x 243 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase, with two panels below featuring details of its decoration, Plate 161 from Volume 2 of Passeri’s Picturae Etruscorum in Vasculis Nunc Primum in Unum Collectae. The vase is probably an amphoriskos, a miniature two-handled storage vessel often used for perfumed oils. Its decoration features two naked, bearded men holding fillets of wool or cloth.

Passeri identifies them as satyric or silenic figures, part of the Bacchic procession, owing to their energetic movement. The top character prepares to leap over a small sacred tree, perhaps a laurel.

Passeri describes the items surrounding the second figure as the contents of the cista mystica, the chest or basket that held the sacred objects of the Dionysiac Mysteries, as well as a pomegranate, which in Greek mythology was considered the fruit of the dead. Equally though, these figures may simply be a pair of bearded athletes.

Condition: Minor time toning to edges of sheet.

Light printers crease to top left corner of plate.

[39838] ÂŁ80

17. T. LXXX: Apud D. Constantium Giovanni Battista Passeri Copper engraving with hand colouring Romae, MDCCLXVII. Ex Typographio Johannis Zempel. [1767] Image 267 x 159 mm, Plate 276 x 173 mm, Sheet 403 x 247 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase, with a panel below featuring details of its decoration, Plate 80 from Volume 1 of Passeri’s Picturae Etruscorum in Vasculis Nunc Primum in Unum Collectae.

The vase is likely a miniature hydria, a vessel used for carrying and pouring water. Passeri suggests that the figures on the vase represent a young man and his mother, though his reasoning for such an assumption is not given. He identifies the small tree at the centre of the scene as a fig, the sacred tree of Bacchus, and suggests that the youth has just finished his ritual bath. Such an attestation would certainly fit thematically with the vase’s intended use. The female figure holds an oval-mirror in her left hand, though whether she uses it to observe herself, or is holding it up for the male to do the same, is unknown. Although mirrors of this type are an attribute of Ceres, the goddess of grain, whose worship in many ways overlapped with that of Dionysus, in this circumstance it is just as likely to be an example of simple domestic use.

Condition: Minor time toning to edges of sheet.

[39839] ÂŁ80

18. T. LXXXIII: In Museo Collegii Romani Giovanni Battista Passeri Copper engraving with hand colouring Romae, MDCCLXVII. Ex Typographio Johannis Zempel. [1767] Image 284 x 167 mm, Plate 295 x 178 mm, Sheet 393 x 250 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase, with two panels below featuring details of its decoration, Plate 83 from Volume 1 of Passeri’s Picturae Etruscorum in Vasculis Nunc Primum in Unum Collectae. The vase is probably an amphoriskos, a miniature two-handled storage vessel often used for perfumed oils.

Passeri’s description of the vase’s decoration is problematic. Owing to his desire to link the vase to rituals and institutions of Etruscan daily life, he identifies the two figures as a woman offering wine to the Lares Viales, and a young Etruscan male wearing the toga praetexta. In the case of the first scene, a ritual offering is a plausible suggestion, though the offering certainly would not involve the Lares Viales, minor (and strictly-Italian) deities thought to guard roadways, and whose shrines could often be found at crossroads. The second figure is most probably a youth wearing a travelling cloak, or an athlete wrapped in a heavy blanket. The toga praetexta, another element of Etruscan culture adopted by the Romans, was worn by freeborn Roman boys before their coming of age, after which time they would wear the toga virilis.

Condition: Minor time toning to edges of sheet.

[39888] £80

19. T. CXXXVI: In Museo Vaticano Giovanni Battista Passeri Copper engraving with hand colouring Romae, MDCCLXX. Ex Typographio Johannis Zempel. [1770] Image 270 x 159 mm, Plate 285 x 173 mm, Sheet 397 x 246 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase, with a panel below featuring details of its decoration, Plate 136 from Volume 2 of Passeri’s Picturae Etruscorum in Vasculis Nunc Primum in Unum Collectae. The vase is probably a miniature oinochoe, as it features the trefoil-lipped spout common to this type of wine-jug.

Held in the Vatican Museums at the time of Passeri’s commentary, the vase probably depicts a Bacchic scene as Passeri suggests. The seated figure, identified by Passeri as the Roman goddess Libera, is possibly Dionysus. Early antiquarians were often confused by depictions of Dionysus as a youth, owing to his long hair, feminine clothing, and effete posture.

Alternatively, the figure could simply be a maenad, one of the female followers of Dionysus, as the distinctive thyrsus staff behind the sitting figure was carried by the god and his followers alike. A third suggestion is that the figures depicted are both deities. Dionysus, standing and holding a crown, approaches Demeter, goddess of grain, who sits on a low throne.

Condition: Minor time toning to edges of sheet.

Small tear to upper left edge of sheet.

[39889] £80

20. T. CXXX: In Mus. Vaticano Giovanni Battista Passeri Copper engraving with hand colouring Romae, MDCCLXX. Ex Typographio Johannis Zempel. [1770] Image 286 x 157 mm, Plate 302 x 165 mm, Sheet 392 x 243 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase, with two panels below featuring details of its decoration, Plate 130 from Volume 2 of Passeri’s Picturae Etruscorum in Vasculis Nunc Primum in Unum Collectae. The vase is a small calyx krater.

Kraters were used to mix water and wine, and were a essential part of the Greek symposium. The calyx krater is so named because of its resemblance in shape to the calyx of a flower. Supposedly invented by the master potter Exekias, its shape suggests that it was used in conjunction with another type of vase called a psykter, which was used to chill wine.

Passeri describes its decoration as scenes related to the Anthesteria, a Greek festival held in honour of Dionysus, with a particular focus on the cult of the dead. The Anthesteria was one of the oldest Greek festivals, and probably celebrated the first growth of the grape vines after the winter. Passeri identifies the central figures in the top scene as Bacchus and his great priestess, though as the standing nude male seems to have a tail, the pair are likely to be a satyr and a maenad. The figures on the back of the vase closely resemble athletic judges or trainers.

Condition: Minor time toning to edges of sheet.

Several tears to edges of sheet, not effecting printed area.

[39890] ÂŁ80

21. T. LXIX: Geni Sacrum Apud Cl M. Aegyptium Giovanni Battista Passeri Copper engraving with hand colouring Romae, MDCCLXVII. Ex Typographio Johannis Zempel. [1767] Image 227 x 159 mm, Plate 256 x 168 mm, Sheet 399 x 238 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase, with two panels below featuring details of its decoration, Plate 69 from Volume 1 of Passeri’s Picturae Etruscorum in Vasculis Nunc Primum in Unum Collectae. The vase is probably a single-handled amphoriskos, a small storage vessel often used for perfumed oils.

Passeri describes its decoration as reflecting a birth ritual involving a winged genius, two of the Camenae, and the goddess Vesta. While the identification of the figures is erroneous, a domestic scene of this type could plausibly reflect some form of birth ritual. The seated figure, identified by Passeri as Vesta, the goddess of the home and Italic equivalent to the greek Hestia, seems to be holding a stringed object in her hand, either a musical instrument, or more probably, a distaff for weaving cloth.

If the scene is a rite of birth, this figure is most likely the mother. The identity of the other figures is more enigmatic. Passeri suggests a number of options, including personifications of Hope and Womanly Virtue, representations of the Parcae, the Roman goddess of Fate, or the aforementioned Camenae, the Roman goddesses of childbirth.

Condition: Minor time toning to edges of sheet.

[39891] ÂŁ80

22. T. CXXXXVI: Alt.p.I. In Museo D. de Hamond Giovanni Battista Passeri Copper engraving with hand colouring Romae, MDCCLXX. Ex Typographio Johannis Zempel. [1770] Image 265 x 157 mm, Plate 285 x 171 mm, Sheet 392 x 230 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase, with a panel below featuring details of its decoration, Plate 146 from Volume 2 of Passeri’s Picturae Etruscorum in Vasculis Nunc Primum in Unum Collectae. The vase is a miniature bell krater, a mixing bowl used for the preparation of watered wine.

Passeri correctly identifies the decoration on this vase as a simple and quite common Bacchic scene. A bacchant and a satyr cavort together as part of the Dionysiac procession. Both figures are naked apart from a diaphanous piece of cloth, the bacchant wearing hers loosely around her arms, while the satyr has wrapped his around his horns as a makeshift veil. The bacchant plays some form of drum or tambourine, perhaps the tympanum often associated with the Dionysiac thiasus, while the satyr claps his hands.

Condition: Minor time toning to edges of sheet.

[39892] ÂŁ80

23. T. LXI: Apud D. Constantium Giovanni Battista Passeri Copper engraving with hand colouring Romae, MDCCLXVII. Ex Typographio Johannis Zempel. [1767] Image 275 x 162 mm, Plate 285 x 172 mm, Sheet 405 x 243 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase, front and back, with a panel below featuring details of its decoration, Plate 61 from Volume 1 of Passeri’s Picturae Etruscorum in Vasculis Nunc Primum in Unum Collectae. The vase is probably a miniature hydria, of the type often called a calpis, used for carrying water.

The back features a large palmette, while the front is decorated with a scene of two figures. Passeri identifies them fairly broadly as a winged genius and a young woman, using most of his commentary to discuss the unusual fact that the winged figure is depicted wearing a high-laced sandal on only one of his feet. Citing examples from the Aeneid, Ovid, and Seneca, he conjectures that the scene is likely one of chthonic sacrifice. The genius certainly seems to be offering a low dish to the seated woman, perhaps a patera filled with wine, water, or milk. The seated figure holds a fillet of cloth, and a lidded box.

Condition: Minor time toning to edges of sheet, with some heavier discolouration along upper edge of sheet. Small tear also to upper edge of sheet.

[39893] ÂŁ80

24. T. CXX: In Bibl. Vaticana.

Giovanni Battista Passeri Copper engraving with hand colouring Romae, MDCCLXX. Ex Typographio Johannis Zempel. [1770] Image 268 x 150 mm, Plate 284 x 171 mm, Sheet 413 x 253 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase, with two panels below featuring details of its decoration, Plate 120 from Volume 2 of Passeri’s Picturae Etruscorum in Vasculis Nunc Primum in Unum Collectae. The vase is probably a miniature hydria, of the type often called a calpis, used for carrying water.

The bottom panel, depicting the back of the vase, shows a large palmette. The scene on the front of the vase depicts two figures, male and female. The male, naked apart from a length of cloth draped over his outstretched arm, leans on a forked staff and carries a situla, a deep bucket usually used for carrying lustral water. The woman, seated and dressed in a loose robe, holds a patera in her right arm, perhaps offering it to the approaching man, or preparing to pour a libation. Passeri’s comments group this vase with a series of others that he identifies as featuring scenes of Bacchic initiation.

Condition: Minor time toning and creasing to margins.

[39894] £80

25. T. XCIV: Alt. Pal. I Vnc. I. In. Biblioth.

Vaticana.

Giovanni Battista Passeri Copper engraving with hand colouring Romae, MDCCLXVII. Ex Typographio Johannis Zempel. [1767] Image 267 x 167 mm, Plate 289 x 179 mm, Sheet 406 x 262 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase, with two panels below featuring details of its decoration, Plate 94 from Volume 1 of Passeri’s Picturae Etruscorum in Vasculis Nunc Primum in Unum Collectae. The vase is probably a miniature amphora, a general storage vessel.

Passeri identifies this vase as depicting a mother confronted by the winged genius of her dead son, though this identification is probably erroneous. The figures in the top register are unknown, but are likely representative of a generic scene of agricultural abundance. The winged figure carries a large bunch of grapes in one hand, while in the other, his patera is topped with a large ear of wheat. The crossed circular objects around him are likely loaves of bread.

The female figure sits upon a crooked rock or tree stump, and seems to offer a chaplet of oak or laurel to the winged figure. The bottom register features two figures in heavy travelling cloaks, one of them holding a short staff.

Condition: A few small tears along left edge of sheet.

[39895] ÂŁ80

26. [T.LXII] In Museo Gorio alt. unc. VIII. Romae in Museo Constantio.

Giovanni Battista Passeri Copper engraving with hand colouring Romae, MDCCLXVII. Ex Typographio Johannis Zempel. [1767] Image 263 x 157 mm, Plate 303 x 174 mm, Sheet 387 x 235 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase, with a panel below featuring details of its decoration, Plate 62 from Volume 1 of Passeri’s Picturae Etruscorum in Vasculis Nunc Primum in Unum Collectae.

The vase is probably a miniature oinochoe, as it features the trefoil-lipped spout common to this type of wine-jug. The panel at the top of the page is a representation of a different vase, a lebes gamikos, and its decoration.

The lebes gamikos is a relatively rare vessel, used specifically in Greek marriage ceremonies. It was likely a receptacle for lustral water, which would have been sprinkled on the bride before the nuptial rite.

The two vases have been grouped together on the same plate so Passeri can illustrate the complementary nature of their decoration. Each features a seated woman surrounded by similar floral and cloth ornaments. The attributes held be the two women differ, with the woman on the lebes gamikos holding either a mirror or rattle, where the woman on the oinochoe holds a shallow dish. The winged figure on the lebes gamikos is either a personified virtue or a representation of Eros, god of love.

Condition: 4cm tear to upper left corner of sheet.

Original plate number [T.LXII] now obscured by hand colouring.

[39896] ÂŁ80

27. T. LXVII: In Museo Mediceo.

Giovanni Battista Passeri Copper engraving with hand colouring Romae, MDCCLXVII. Ex Typographio Johannis Zempel. [1767] Image 274 x 153 mm, Plate 293 x 163 mm, Sheet 385 x 236 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase, with two panels below featuring details of its decoration, Plate 67 from Volume 1 of Passeri’s Picturae Etruscorum in Vasculis Nunc Primum in Unum Collectae. The vase is probably a miniature pelike, a type of storage vessel used almost exclusively for liquids.

The decoration features two figural scenes. The first depicts a standing woman and a nude seated man holding up a box or chest. Passeri’s commentary ascribes a Bacchic origin to this scene, seeing the chest as the cista used in Bacchic initiations. If this is the case, the female character is probably a maenad, who has just discarded her tympanum (drum) on the ground between the two figures. The second scene involves a similar pair, the woman standing and the man seated, but also a winged figure perched between them on a cloud.

Passeri believes this to be a representation of a birth ritual, though it could equally be a domestic scene such as a wedding, a mythological scene perhaps involving Adonis, or even a funerary scene.

Condition: Some minor time toning to edges of sheet, and faint discolouration to margins.

[39897] £80

28. CCXXI: Ex Museo Mastrillio. Neapoli apud Teatinos.

Giovanni Maria Cassini Copper engraving with hand colouring Romae, MDCCLXXV. Ex Typographio Johannis Zempel. [1775] Image 268 x 158 mm, Plate 276 x 165 mm, Sheet 380 x 234 mm A depiction of a red-figure vase, with a panel below featuring details of its decoration, Plate 221 from Volume 3 of Passeri’s Picturae Etruscorum in Vasculis Nunc Primum in Unum Collectae. The vase is probably a kylix, perhaps of the type known as a Siana cup, as it features the flared lip and double bands of decoration common to this type of drinking vessel.

The panel at the top of the page is a representation of a different vase, possibly a small ‘Nolan’ amphora, and its decoration. Passeri seems to have grouped the two vases together under the assumption that their decoration depicts two stages of the initiation rites of the Bacchic mysteries, though in all likelihood both are simple domestic scenes. Nolan amphorae like the one featured at the top of the plate commonly feature relatively simple designs, frequently of a single figure on each side.

In this case, the vase seems to depict an athletic judge or traveller on one side, identified by his cloak and staff, and on the other, a beautiful youth. The kalos inscription near the figure suggests a male, though the clothing seems to female. The figures on the kylix could feasibly be Bacchic, though they are just as likely to be part of the myth cycle of Aphrodite and Adonis. The young man appears to be wearing eastern dress, and the ear of grain and the box he carries both fit the story of Adonis. In the myth, the young Adonis was an eastern agricultural deity who was, as a child, kept in a chest and given

by Aphrodite to the goddess Persephone for safe keeping. Alternatively, this may just as easily be a simple domestic scene.

Giovanni Maria Cassini (fl. 1783) was an Italian engraver who worked in Rome, and focused on antiquarian subjects.

Condition: Some minor time toning to edges of sheet, and faint discolouration to margins.

[39898] £80

Godin’s plans of Greek cities, from the Voyages of the Young Anarchasis The Recueil de Cartes Geographiques Plans, Vues, et Medailles de l’Ancienne Grece, Reelatifs au Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis was an atlas published by the Paris booksellers, printmakers, and engravers Jean Denis Barbie du Bocage to accompany JeanJacques Barthelemy’s Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en Grèce dans le milieu du IVe siècle.

The Voyage du jeune Anacharsis was an unusual work. Written as a sort of general guidebook to the cities, customs, and culture of classical Greece, it purported to be the work of the grandson of the Scythian philosopher Anacharsis, documenting his travels in Greece during the 4th century BC. This clever literary conceit allowed the real author, Barthelemy, to explore the history and society of Classical Greece in a manner that was informative, yet informal, aiming to appeal to a much broader audience than a traditional academic history.

Barthelemy was a talented antiquarian, particularly in regards to the study of ancient numismatics, and although the content of his work contains numerous historical flaws, the Voyage du jeune Anacharsis was a huge success, appearing in numerous editions and reprints. Sadly Barthelemy received very little from his success, his aristocratic background marking him as a target for the Revolutionary government, who confiscated most of his wealth.

Despite his economic hardships, the general public continued to hold him in high esteem, and the demand for his material on ancient Greece was the main motivation behind the publication in 1788 of the accompanying Atlas to the Voyage. The first edition of Barbie’s Recueil contained 31 plates related to Barthelemy’s text, including maps of cities and territories, plans of battles, religious sanctuaries, and public spaces, and illustrations of temples, theatres, and even coins.

Henri-Joseph Godin (1747-1834) was a French painter, engraver, and printmaker. He worked on maps for a number of atlases, as well as portraits, architectural plans, and antiquarian subjects.

Philibert-Benoît de la Rue (1718-1780) was a French engraver, painter, and designer. He was the brother of the designer Louis-Felix de la Rue. Jacques Foucherot (5th February 1746 - 16th September 1813) was a French architect, draughtsman, and archaeologist. A fellow of the French Royal Academy of Architecture, in 1776 he accompanied the Comte de Choiseul-Gouffier on a Grand Tour to the Ottoman Empire, being the first Frenchman to survey a number of the classical ruins of the Greek Islands and the Turkish Coast of the Aegean, among them Naxos, Santorini, Patmos, Telmessos, Halicarnassus, and Bodrum. In 1780, he travelled to Ottoman Greece with the Comte’s friend and assistant, the artist and diplomat Louis-FrançoisSébastien Fauvel.

Their journey was extensive, and well documented

by Foucherot, who carried out extensive surveys of monuments they deemed important historically or particularly impressive architecturally. The pair are reputedly the first modern archaeologists to have carried out surveys in the Bronze Age sites of Mycenae, Tiryns, and Argos, as well as the classical remains of Nemea. Although they were not given permission to visit the ruins of Delphi, they were permitted in Athens to visit the buildings of the Acropolis, and did much to improve upon earlier drawings of the Parthenon, Erechtheum, and Propylaea. Following his return from Greece, Foucherot reworked a number of his site plans and surveys for publication in Barbie du Bocage’s Recueil de Cartes Geographiques Plans, Vues, et Medailles de l’Ancienne Grece, Reelatifs au Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis.

29. Essai Sur la Bataille de Platée, Pour le Voyage du Jeune Anarcharsis dressé uniquement sur le rapport des Auteurs Anciens Godin, Henri-Joseph Copper engraved Par M. Barbié du Bocage. Fevrier 1784.

212 x 349 mm

city states, the most significant involvement coming from Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Megara, and Sicyon.

The Persian wars, carried out by Darius, and his son Xerxes a decade apart, were instigated in retaliation for the so-called Ionian revolt, in which a number of states on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor overthrew their Persian governors and garrisons.

A plan of the famous Battle of Plataea, Plate 4 from the 1788 edition of Barbie du Bocage’s Recueil de Cartes Geographiques Plans, Vues, et Medailles de l’Ancienne Grece, Reelatifs au Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis. The plan features detailed topography of Mount Cithaeron and the plain of the rivers Asopus and Oeroe. The city of Plataea is depicted as a simple circle ringed with a defensive wall. Only the Agora and Temple of Minerva are depicted in the city plan. In addition to a simple road system, a number of notable buildings and monuments are also depicted, including the Sanctuary of Demeter, the Temple of Apollo, and the Heroon of Androcrates.

The most significant feature of the map are the positions of the Greek and Persian forces, their movements in the battle marked by a series of dotted lines and explanatory text. The square fortified camp of the Persian commander Mardonius appears prominently in the top right corner of the map, on the banks of the Asopus river.

Following the defeat of the Persian navy at Salamis in 480 BC, the allied Greek states amassed a huge force to attack the Persian fortifications in Boeotia, near the Greek city of Plataea. Although the conflict was fierce on both sides, the turning point is described by Herodotus as coming when a Spartan soldier, having seen the Persian commander Mardonius upon a horse, killed him with a wellaimed stone to the head. The result was a general route of the Persian forces, a significant number of which were slaughtered in their own camp.

The Greek victory marked the end of the Persian invasions. The fifty years following the end of the Persian Wars saw the growth of Athens as the supreme naval power of the Aegean. Along with continual conflict and intrigue between Persia and the Greek city-states, this period also witnessed growing antagonism between Athens and Sparta, the result of which would be the Peloponnesian War.

The Battle of Plataea was the final decisive land battle of the Persian Wars, fought in 479 BC between the Persian forces of Xerxes the Great, under the generalship of Mardonius, and an alliance of Greek

Condition: Central vertical fold as issued. Minor foxing to top border of map.

[13252] £40

30. Vue de Delphes et des Deux Roches du Parnasse. Essai Sur les Environs de Delphes, Pour le Voyage du jeune Anarcharsis Godin, Henri-Joseph Copper engraved Par M. Barbié du Bocage. Mars 1787.

180 x 144 mm

the home of the Delphic Oracle, a priestess known as the Pythia who provided prophetic responses to questions put to her by supplicants from the various Greek city-states. In mythology, the site of Delphi was the place where Apollo, god of prophesy, slayed the Python, a monstrous serpent or dragon set to protect the site by Gaia, goddess of the earth.

A plan of the Greek city-state and Panhellenic religious sanctuary of Delphi, Plate 12 from the 1788 edition of Barbie du Bocage’s Recueil de Cartes Geographiques Plans, Vues, et Medailles de l’Ancienne Grece, Reelatifs au Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis. The city of Delphi is shown nested between the peaks of Mount Parnassus, with significant features such as the hippodrome and the sanctuary of Apollo labelled. The plan also features detailed topography of the environs of Delphi, including the Gulf of Crissa, the port-settlement of Cirrha, the town of Amphissa, and Mount Cirphis.

At the top of the plate, a view depicts the sanctuary in the Valley of Phocis, with the Temple of Apollo prominent in the centre.

To expiate this violent act, Apollo bathed and ritually purified himself in the nearby Castallian spring, the waters of which were said to impart to the drinker the gift of foresight. Apart from its religious significance, the city gained further importance in the civic life of the Greek world. Because of the sacrosanctity of Delphi, many Greek states chose to store their gold reserves in treasuries on the site, trusting to the religious respect the site commanded as a means of safeguarding their wealth. Delphi was also the location of one of the four major Panhellenic sporting festivals, the Pythian Games, which was celebrated every four years.

The city and cult sanctuary of Delphi was the most significant site of religious importance in the Hellenic world. Considered the centre, or omphalos (literally ‘belly-button’), of the Greek world, it was the site of the Temple and Sanctuary of Apollo, and

Condition: Binders holes to left margin, not affecting image.

[13254] £55

Compared to other city-states, Sparta was unusual in its architecture and layout, as this plan ably shows. The historian Thucydides commented that an outsider, viewing the collection of villages that constituted Sparta, would never guess that this was the greatest military power in the Greek world.

Sparta was the pre-eminent military power for much of the archaic and classical period of Greek history. Centred on the Eurotas Valley, the citystate differed in a number of significant ways from its contemporaries. Its system of government was a diarchy of two kings, supported by a council of elders. This system allowed one king to travel as the general of the Spartan army, while the other remained at home to govern. Spartan society was heavily focussed on military achievement, with young boys entering an intensive training program called the agoge at age seven.

31. Essai Sur La Topographie de Sparte et de ses Environs, Pour le Voyage du Jeune Anarcharsis Godin, Henri-Joseph Copper engraved H. Godin Sculp. Juillet 1783 310 x 197 mm A plan of the Greek city-state of Sparta or Lacedaemon, and its environs, Plate 21 from the 1788 edition of Barbie du Bocage’s Recueil de Cartes Geographiques Plans, Vues, et Medailles de l’Ancienne Grece, Reelatifs au Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis. The plan focusses on the cluster of settlements centred around the citadel of Sparta, a rocky spur on the banks of the Eurotas River, in the valley between the mountains of Taygetus and Parnon, here listed as Mont Menelaion, after the hero-shrine of the Mycenaean king of Lacedaemon, Menelaus.

The nearby towns of Therapne and Amyclae are also depicted. The plan is extensively numbered, with a corresponding key of over thirty places of interest, including the temple of Artemis Orthia, the Gerousia, the council of the Ephors, the temple of Helen, and the tomb of Leonidas.

Women too were expected to undergo fitness training, upon the understanding that only strong mothers could bear strong children. Culturally, the Spartans were strongly resistant to outside influence, seeing the Athenian approach to wealth and luxury as decadent and dangerous to their way of life. The resulting tension between the two states eventually led to the Peloponnesian War, and despite Sparta’s eventual victory, the losses sustained over thirty years of war irreparably weakened Spartan power.

Their loss to Thebes in 371 BC at the Battle of Leuctra marked the end of Spartan hegemony in the Aegean.

Condition: Central horizontal fold as issued. Minor time-toning to sheet.

[13260] £50

32. Essai Sur La Topographie de Olympie dressé uniquement sur le rapport des Autres Anciens, Pour le Voyage du jeune Anarcharsis Godin, Henri-Joseph Copper engraved Par M. Barbié du Bocage. Mai 1780.

184 x 287 mm A plan of the Greek city of Olympia, Plate 18 from the 1788 edition of Barbie du Bocage’s Recueil de Cartes Geographiques Plans, Vues, et Medailles de l’Ancienne Grece, Reelatifs au Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis. The city of Olympia is shown with particular reference to religious and sporting edifices. The plan is bordered at the bottom and left by the rivers Alphaeus and Cladeus. The most recognisable monuments are the Hippodrome and the Stadium, though the Theatre, Prytaneion (meeting-house), and the Temple of Zeus are also prominently featured. Smaller sanctuaries, temples, and unusual buildings like the workshop of Pheidias and the tomb of the hero Oenomaus are illustrated with explanatory titles.

The city of Olympia grew to fame largely due to the fact that it was host to the Olympic Games, the oldest and most important of the four Panhellenic sporting festivals. The Olympics were purported to have first been held in 776 BC and were celebrated almost continuously every four years until the Roman emperor Theodosius passed an edict in AD 394 abolishing pagan festivals and closing

sanctuaries and temples across the Roman world. In addition to its sporting role, Olympia was also an important religious sanctuary. The oldest buildings on the site suggest it was originally a cult sanctuary to the goddess Hera, though by the classical period, this had been eclipsed by worship of Zeus, king of the gods and husband of Hera. The Temple of Olympian Zeus, completed by the mid 5th-century BC, was considered the perfect example of a Classical temple in the Doric Order.

By the Hellenistic period, the temple’s fame warranted its inclusion as one of the Seven Ancient Wonders. Its most famous attribute was the cult statue of Zeus, created by the master sculptor Pheidias of chryselephantine, ivory and gold laid over a wooden frame. The statue became a symbol for Olympia as a whole, appearing on the city’s coinage. The fate of the statue is unknown. One narrative records its transferral at the behest of Constantine to Constantinople, along with many other famous works of ancient art, where it was probably destroyed in the fire at the Palace of Lausus. Otherwise, it likely perished when the Temple at Olympia burned down in AD 425.

Condition: Central vertical fold as issued. Minor adhesive discolouration to central fold. Small brown ink-spot to right edge of plate, not affecting image.

[13261] £40

The Academy was a centre for teaching and scholarship established by the famous Greek philosopher Plato in the early fourth century BC outside the city of Athens. It is often hailed as the first institution of higher education in the Western world, and a prototype of the university, though, as least in the classical era, it seems to have engaged in no formal teaching activity. Instead, learning and thinking was encouraged through dialectic, particularly in the form of Socratic question and answer, though Plato himself seems to have delivered some form of lecture on certain occasions.

33. Plan de L’ Académie et de ses Environs, Pour le Voyage du Jeune Anarcharsis Godin, Henri-Joseph after De la Rue, PhilibertBenoît Copper engraved Par M. Barbié du Bocage. Mai 1784.

208 x 163 mm A plan of the site and environs of Plato’s Academy outside the Greek city of Athens, Plate 6 from the 1788 edition of Barbie du Bocage’s Recueil de Cartes Geographiques Plans, Vues, et Medailles de l’Ancienne Grece, Reelatifs au Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis. The Gardens of the Academy are shown in proximity to the City Walls of Athens in the bottom right corner of the plan.

The gates of the city, including the famous Dipylon gate, are labelled, as are a number of shrines, tombs, and monuments in the Kerameikos, which lies between the city and the Academy. The house of Plato and the tower of Timon the misanthrope are also labelled. In the top right corner, the town of Colonus, made famous by the Theban triad of the playwright Sophocles, is depicted with its temples of Ceres, Minerva, and Poseidon, as well as the shrine of the Eumenides.

The precinct in which the Academy stood was the site of a religious sanctuary to Athena. Established as early as the Bronze Age, the gardens of the Academy preserved a wooded grove sacred to the goddess of wisdom. These trees, to the outrage of numerous commentators, were later torn down by the Roman general Sulla to make siege engines for his sack of Athens in the first century BC. Teaching at the Academy continued into the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and was a centre for the teaching of Academic Skepticism. Around AD 410 the Academy was revived by the Neoplatonists, but was finally closed in AD 529 by decree of the Byzantine emperor Justinian. The closing of the Academy is considered by some as marking the end of Antiquity.

Condition: Trimmed within plate-mark on left margin, not affecting image. Minor binding crease to left side of plate.

[13262] £30

The second is a coin of Arcadia, with the god Pan shown resting on the slope of Olympus, his hand on a crooked shepherd’s staff and his pan-pipes at his feet.

The third coin features the famous cult statue of Aphrodite from the temple at the Ionian Greek city of Cnidos.

The final coin depicts the cult sanctuary of Hera on the island of Samos. The cult statue of the goddess is depicted in a colonnaded vestibule, with two peacocks and a small pomegranate tree.

34. Médailles tirées du Cabinet du Roi, pour le Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis Godin, Henri-Joseph after De la Rue, PhilibertBenoît Copper engraving [Par M. Barbié du Bocage, c.1788] Image 200 x 135 mm, Plate 213 x 170 mm, Sheet 260 x 184 mm An illustration of ancient Greek coinage, with short textual descriptions of each, Plate 27 from the 1788 edition of Barbie du Bocage’s Recueil de Cartes Geographiques Plans, Vues, et Medailles de l’Ancienne Grece, Reelatifs au Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis. The four coins featured are all from the French Royal Cabinet of Coins and Medals.

The first, in the top left corner, is an Athenian coin, featuring a depiction of the Acropolis and the inscription ‘ATHEN.’ The cave of Pan on the slopes of the Acropolis can be seen below representations of the Parthenon, the statue of Athena Promachos, and the Propylaea.

Coinage was supposedly introduced to the ancient Greeks by the Lydians towards the end of the seventh century BC. The first Lydian coinage was made of electrum, an alloy of silver and gold, but by the sixth century, numismatic technology had advanced to issuing separate gold, silver, and bronze coins. Although most Greek city states had adopted coinage by this time, some resisted, most notably the Spartans, who continued to use traditional barter in most cases, with a type of iron bar taking the place of coinage to discourage the amassing of wealth by Spartan citizens.

The coinage of Athens eventually became the standard during the fifth century BC, with Athenian ‘owls’, the animal symbol of the goddess Athena, being widely traded and used across the Aegean, particularly by member states of the so-called Athenian empire. In some cases, the coinage of member states would even be melted down and reissued by Athens.

Condition: Trimmed to plate mark on right margin, not affecting image. Light foxing to top of sheet.

[13274] £20

35. Plan et Élévation des Propylées Henri-Joseph Godin after Jacques Foucherot Copper engraving Dessiné par M. Foucherot [c.1788] Image 212 x 166 mm, Plate 252 x 190 mm, Sheet 262 x 204 mm A floorplan of the Propylaea in Athens, the grand entrance way to the temples of the Athenian acropolis, Plate 9 from the 1788 edition of Barbie du Bocage’s Recueil de Cartes Geographiques Plans, Vues, et Medailles de l’Ancienne Grece, Reelatifs au Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis. In addition to the floorplan, the plate also includes a topographical view of the Propylaea.

The view was probably taken from the neighbouring Areopagus, as it does not show the lower sections of the acropolis walls and the monumental podiums of the first gate. The structure is shown as it would have been during the late fifth century BC, when the city of Athens was at its apogee.

The Propylaea was constructed during the 430s BC as part of the Periclean rebuilding of the Acropolis after the destruction of the pre-existing monuments by the Persians. The architect, Mnesicles, had originally planned another two wings to the building on the eastern side, but these were never built, owing to the increasing demands on Athens’ resources brought about by the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. In the Medieval period, the building was used by the aristocratic Acciaioli family as a palace. During the Ottoman period, the Propylaea, like the neighbouring Parthenon, was used as an armaments store. It was severely damaged in the seventeenth century when a powder magazine exploded, a fate similar to that which the Parthenon would suffer in 1687 during a siege carried out by the Venetians.

Condition: Trimmed to platemark on left margin. To small tears to left margin, not affecting image.

[13276] £40

36. Plan D’une Palestre Grecque d’ apres Vitruve Henri-Joseph Godin after Jacques Foucherot Copper engraving [Par M. Barbié du Bocage, c.1788] Image 211 x 166 mm, Plate 258 x 190 mm, Sheet 261 x 205 mm

37. Plan d’une maison Grecque d’apres Vitruve Henri-Joseph Godin after Jacques Foucherot Copper engraving Dessine par M. Foucherot d’apres le Croquis de M. Mariette [c.1788] Image 210 x 162 mm, Plate 235 x 181 mm, Sheet 261 x 204 mm

A plan of a classical Greek palaestra, based on the observations of the Roman architect and writer Vitruvius, Plate 7 from the 1788 edition of Barbie du Bocage’s Recueil de Cartes Geographiques Plans, Vues, et Medailles de l’Ancienne Grece, Reelatifs au Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis. This plan is more correctly a representation of a gymnasium, as the palaestra proper is only the central part of the plan.

As per the commentary of Vitruvius, the palaestra in this plan is depicted as an open courtyard surrounded by collonades, with the northern colonnade of double span to protect against the elements. Around this are a number of rooms for the use of the athletes. The gymnasium also includes a large gardened courtyard, and two stadia, one with a set of banked steps and one that is heavily wooded.

A plan of a classical Greek house, based on the observations of the Roman architect and writer Vitruvius, Plate 13 from the 1788 edition of Barbie du Bocage’s Recueil de Cartes Geographiques Plans, Vues, et Medailles de l’Ancienne Grece, Reelatifs au Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis. The plan shows the traditional bipartite division of the Greek house, with separate apartments for the female members of the household. Each room of the floorplan is labelled with a letter or number corresponding to an extensive key at the bottom of the plate.

Condition: Trimmed within plate at top and left margins, not affecting image. Minor binders crease to left edge of image.

[13277] £20

[13281] £25

Condition: Trimmed within plate mark on left margin, not affecting image. Small water-stain to bottom right of key.

Bartoli’s Etchings of Roman Relief Sculpture The Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum ac Veteris Sculpturae Vestigia Anaglyphico Opere Elaborata ex Marmoreis Exemplaribus was one of a number of illustrated volumes on antiquarian subjects published by the prolific de Rossi family. The work featured 83 etched plates by the antiquarian and engraver, Pietro Santi Bartoli, depicting examples of Roman relief sculpture, all of which Bartoli had viewed and studied in the various papal and aristocratic collections across Rome.

In collaboration with the antiquarian Bellori and the publishers Giovanni and Domenico de Rossi, Bartoli produced a number of works documenting the art, architecture, history, and culture of ancient Rome.

Of particular note are his series of 128 etchings depicting details of the frieze on the Column of Trajan, and a number of plates of Roman monuments after Giacomo Lauro that were published by Domenico de Rossi in his Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta in 1699.

Like many of Bartoli’s works, the plates of the Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum included commentary and notes by the celebrated antiquarian, Giovanni Pietro Bellori, with whom Bartoli enjoyed a long and fruitful academic partnership. The work was dedicated by the publishers to Cardinal Flavio Chigi, nephew of Pope Alexander VII and a member of the powerful Chigi family, who had died in September 1693, the same year as its publication.

Cardinal Chigi had been a close friend of Bartoli’s patron, Queen Christina of Sweden. His position in such a powerful papal family had also been beneficial to engravers and publishers, particularly those with an interest in classical architecture.

Domenico de’ Rossi (1659 – 1730) was an Italian publisher, engraver, bookseller, and antiquarian.

The scion of a large and prolific family of printers, Domenico inherited the Rossi printshop from his father, Giovanni Giacomo de’ Rossi. The printworks was established near the church of Santa Maria della Pace in 1633 by Guiseppe de’Rossi, who specialised in producing engravings for designers. Under Giovanni Giacomo and Domenico, the workshop reached its zenith, with father and son working on engravings on many diverse subjects, but with a speciality in publishing works of antiquarian interest.

Alexander VII had been one of the great ‘builder’ popes, whose term had endowed Rome with numerous churches, public fountains, gardens, and palazzi in the rococo style, as well as encouraging the excavation, documentation, and in some cases, restoration, of the monuments of the classical era. Many of the relief sculptures depicted in the Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum had been rediscovered in these excavations, and were quickly added to the collections of the Chigi family and their peers.

Pietro Santi Bartoli (1635 – 7th November 1700) was an Italian draughtsman, architect, antiquarian, and engraver. Born in Perugia, Bartoli apprenticed with Jean Lemaire and Nicholas Poussin. Although he would give up painting following Poussin’s death to focus on engraving, the classical scenes that were the speciality of Poussin and Lemaire were probably responsible for the young Bartoli’s interest in classical subjects.

Domenico’s friendship and collaboration with the engraver Bartoli and the antiquarian Bellori proved fruitful, and in the period between the early 1690s and Domenico’s death in 1730, the group published numerous works on Roman architecture, sculpture, history, portraiture, ceramics, oil lamps, and funerary iconography. In Domenico’s later life, his connections with the influential Maffei family secured the Rossi imprint Papal privilege.

Following Domenico’s death, the Rossi printshop became the Calcographia Camerale, then the Regia Calcographia, and finally the current Calcographia Nazionale.

38. [Six Scenes from the Trojan War] Pietro Santi Bartoli Etching Domenicus de Rubeis Chalcographus Anno MDCXCIII. Romae ad Templum Sa. Ma. de Pace, cum Privil. Summi Pont. et Licentia Superiorum Image 278 x 316 mm, Plate 282 x 322 mm, Sheet 363 x 474 mm A depiction of a Roman relief panel of six scenes from the Trojan Epic Cycle, Plate 4 from Bartoli’s Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693).

The relief panels depict well-known events from Homer’s Iliad. In the top left corner, Mercury gives the golden ‘Apple of Discord’ to the Trojan prince Paris, thus setting in motion the chain of events that will lead to the Trojan War. Behind him are the three goddesses, Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite. In the second panel on the left, the Greeks attempt to reclaim the body of Patroclus, Achilles’ companion, from his killer, the Trojan hero Hector. The goddess Athena assists the Greeks.

In the third scene, Achilles, putting aside his differences with the other Greek heroes after the death of Patroclus, takes up the armour his mother Thetis has had made for him by Hephaestus, and mounts his chariot to find and kill Hector. The fourth scene, at the top right corner, shows the aftermath of Achilles’ and Hector’s combat. The dead Hector is tied to Achilles’ chariot, and dragged by his feet around the walls of Troy. Hector’s mother Hecuba, and his wife Andromache, can be seen leading the women of Troy in their lament.

The final two scenes depict the funerary procession for the dead Patroclus. Horses for funerary games and bulls for sacrifice are lead towards his burial mound, accompanied by veiled priests and a musician.

These relief sculptures probably derive from an unusual artefact known as a tabula iliaca. Because fewer than 25 of these tabulae have survived, and most of these are fragmentary, they remain quite enigmatic. Having come exclusively from Roman workshops in the early Imperial period, many seem to have been used as bibliographic catalogues (pinakes) for the Trojan epic cycle. Most examples feature a large scene of the fall of Troy, surrounded by smaller rectangular panels depicting specific events of the war.

The most complete example is the Tabula Iliaca Capitolina, in the Capitoline Museum in Rome, though Bartoli’s engravings are evidently taken from a different tabula. Some scholars have suggested that tabulae iliacae were used as literary crib-sheets for the less well-read nouveau riche, though recent scholarship argues that they were instead used as stimulants for erudition, offering alternative ways of examining the Trojan myth cycle.

Condition: Minor foxing to image and margins.

Creases to bottom right corner of sheet, not affecting plate or image.

[40647] £75

In the second scene, Rhea, having given birth to the twin boys Romulus and Remus, is discovered by her uncle Amulius, who had earlier staged a coup to overthrow her father Numitor as king of Alba Longa.

Fearful that a challenge to his kingship may arise if Numitor’s line is allowed to continue, Amulius orders the twins to be exposed on the banks of the Tiber.

In the final panel, the twins are shown being rescued by the shepherd Faustulus, who finds that they have survived exposure through the intervention of a shewolf, who suckles them in a grotto near the Tiber.

These relief sculptures probably derive from a square votive altar, likely dedicated to Mars and Venus, the divine parents of the Roman race through the heroes Aeneas and Romulus. Each scene likely represents a panel of decoration for each of the altar’s four sides. Dedicatory altars to Mars and Venus, being the gods of War and Love respectively, are relatively common, with Mars being the particular god of choice for many votive altars in regions with Roman military garrisons.

Aside from the piety and devotion associated with the physical erection of votive altars, devotees would ensure the continuing assistance of the god by offering sacrifices on the altar. The type of sacrifice offered differed depending on the occasion and the deity. Although blood sacrifices were relatively common, these were more usually found in state or community festivals. For personal dedications, wine, milk, honey, water, or foodstuffs were the most common.

39. Urbis Romae Primordia Pietro Santi Bartoli Etching Domenicus de Rubeis Chalcographus Anno MDCXCIII. Romae ad Templum Sa. Ma. de Pace, cum Privil. Summi Pont. et Licentia Superiorum Image 335 x 167 mm, Plate 345 x 175 mm, Sheet 362 x 474 mm A depiction of a Roman relief panel of four scenes from the myth cycle of Romulus and Remus, Plate 5 from Bartoli’s Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693). The relief panels depict well-known events from Rome’s mythic history. In the first scene, the god Mars, with helmet, spear, and shield, prepares to ravish the vestal virgin, Rhea Silvia, on the banks of the Tiber river. Tiber is personified in the relief as a bearded figure carrying a bundle of reeds.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Minor foxing to image and margins. Minor crease to bottom right corner of sheet, not affecting plate or image.

[40650] £75

40. Isidis Pompa Pietro Santi Bartoli Etching Domenicus de Rubeis Chalcographus Anno MDCXCIII. Romae ad Templum Sa. Ma. de Pace, cum Privil. Summi Pont. et Licentia Superiorum Image 185 x 370 mm, Plate 188 x 373 mm, Sheet 363 x 474 mm A depiction of a Roman relief panel of Isis worship, Plate 16 from Bartoli’s Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693). The relief panel, now in the Vatican Museums, was part of the collection of the powerful Mattei family. The scene depicts the pompa (procession) of the devotees of the goddess Isis.

Leading the procession is the priestess of Isis, carrying in one hand a Nilotic situla of lustral water.

An Egyptian cobra is entwined around her other arm, its hooded head raised. Behind her is a bare-chested priest, his toga rolled down to his midriff. He wears a helmet adorned with two feathers, and carries a scroll before him.

Third in line is another priest, wearing a crisp, white toga candida, the folds of which he has used to veil his head and wrap his left hand. Against his chest he carries an urn of lustral water, and his feet are wrapped in linen. The final figure is a priestess who carries the sacred objects of the goddess, the sistrum rattle and a simpulum (ladle) with a handle notched like a nilometer, the tool that was used to measure the inundation of the Nile.

Isis was an Egyptian mother goddess, and closely connected with cults of magic and nature. The consort of Osiris, the god of the dead, her worship and myth cycle also included themes of resurrection and rebirth. By the Roman period, the element of resurrection in Isis’ mythology had come to prominence. A temple to Isis was decreed in Rome in the late 1st century BC, though the involvement of Cleopatra in the feud between Antony and Augustus cooled enthusiasm for Egyptian influence in the city.

The cult received official imperial backing under Caligula, who instituted the festival of the Navigium Isidis, a procession like the one depicted in this panel. Because of Isis’ status as a saviour goddess, her worship was attractive to devotees of many social classes, including slaves. By the second century BC, the cult of Isis had taken on cultic attributes of numerous other deities, including Minerva, Venus, Cybele, Serapis, Mithras, and even Jesus Christ. The principal Temple of Isis and Serapis in Rome gave its name to a regio next to the Caelian Hill. It is likely that the panel depicted in the plate came from that Temple or its immediate surrounds, as the Caelian was the location for the Mattei family’s principal Roman palace, the Villa Celimontana.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Minor time toning to edges of sheet.

[40651] £100

41. Sacra Matri Magnae in Antro Idæo Pietro Santi Bartoli Etching Domenicus de Rubeis Chalcographus Anno MDCXCIII. Romae ad Templum Sa. Ma. de Pace, cum Privil. Summi Pont. et Licentia Superiorum Image 148 x 215 mm, Plate 177 x 240 mm, Sheet 362 x 472 mm A depiction of a Roman relief panel of Cybele, Plate 17 from Bartoli’s Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693). The relief panel depicts the followers of the Great Goddess in the Idaean Cave on Crete. The first woman, bare-footed, and dressed in the robe and head-wrap of a Cretan matron, burns pine cones on a square stone altar. The altar is garlanded with fruit, probably a ‘first fruits’ offering like those in the plate in her other hand.

The younger second woman plays a tympanum, a tambourine-like instrument used in the worship of Cybele, Dionysus, and Sabazius. The third, her head wrapped like the first, plays a buxus, a type of flute made of box-wood. Bellori’s comments on the plate indicate that the relief was once part of the collection in the Palazzo Vitelleschi, though whether this is the same villa that now houses the Tarquinia National Museum, or one of the other properties of the Vitelleschi family is unknown. The relief panel itself is likely the decorative front of an altar to Cybele.

Cybele was an eastern goddess, particularly associated with Phrygia in Asia Minor, who was officially ‘brought’ to Rome during the Second Punic War. A mother goddess, her common Roman name was Magna Mater, the Great Mother. In the Greek world, she was equated with Gaia and Demeter, goddesses of the earth and harvest.

In the Roman world, her ritual and worship combined elements of many gods, both foreign and Roman, retaining elements of nature and the harvest, but also integrating themes of witchcraft, resurrection, rebirth, and ecstatic frenzy. Her priests, the eunuch galli, were at particular odds with Roman aristocratic tastes, and numerous commentators relish describing their self-mutilation, frenzied dancing, exotic musical instruments, and cacophonous processions. By the Augustan era though, the Great Goddess had become more or less adopted into official Roman historiography, as one of the protective deities who ensured the continuation of the Trojan race through Aeneas, and thus through the Roman people.

Condition: Minor time toning to edges of sheet.

Minor creasing to bottom right corner of sheet, not affecting plate or image.

[40654] £75

42. Iphigenia in Aulide Pietro Santi Bartoli Etching Rome ex Typographia Domenici de Rubeis Hæredis Io. Iacobi de Rubeis ad Templum S. Mariæ de Pace cum Privilegio Summi Pont. et Superiorum permissu Images 233 x 420 mm & 233 x 404 mm, Plates 236 x 422 mm & 236 x 410 mm, Sheets 362 x 472 mm A pair of plates depicting the Roman relief panel of Iphigenia from the famous Medici Vase, Plates 18 and 19 from Bartoli’s Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693). The marble vase from which the scene is taken is depicted in full on the second plate, and was at the time of publication in the Gardens of the Medici Villa.

The scene on the vase depicts part of the myth cycle of the Trojan War. Agamemnon, leader of the united Greek forces, is stranded with the Greek fleet at the Boeotian port of Aulis, owing to the dead calm of the sea-breezes. Following the advice of the seer Chalcas, Agamemnon agrees to sacrifice his own daughter, Iphigenia, to appease the virgin-goddess Artemis and gain the Greeks the winds they need to sail to Troy. Agamemnon’s action, while agreed upon by the Greek forces, will ultimately spell his death following the Trojan War at the hands of his vengeful wife, Clytemnestra.

Bartoli’s illustrations of the vase are described by Belloi with a numbered key. To the extreme left is Iphigenia herself, seemingly already dead, and slumped against the pedestal of the cult statue of Artemis. Before her, the hero Achilles, the most vehemently opposed to her death, admires the courage she showed in going willingly to the altar.

Behind him stands Odysseus, whose cunning rouse that she would be the bride of Achilles brought Iphigenia to Aulis and her death.

The veiled figure behind Odysseus is probably Agamemnon, his head covered to express his grief at having to sacrifice his daughter. The other figures in the scene are most likely other Greek heroes, the older man leaning on a staff perhaps Menelaus, Agamemnon’s brother and husband of the abducted Helen.

The Medici Vase, along with the slightly larger Borghese Vase now in the Louvre, is a monumental bell krater, carved in marble in Athens during the early Imperial period for the Roman art market.

Although the vase’s origin is unknown, it was part of the extensive collections of Roman sculpture owned by the Medici family, and adorned the gardens of the Medici Palace in Rome until it was move to the Uffizi in Florence in 1780, where it remains to this day.

The vase appealed equally to both baroque and neo-classical tastes, and as such has been replicated numerous times in various media. It was a favourite prop for the capricci of Panini, was the study piece for Angelica Kauffman’s grand tour portrait of Lord Berwick, was recreated in jasper-ware by Wedgwood, was documented in detail by Piranesi, and can be found recreated in marble, alabaster, bronze, coade-stone and all manner of other materials in English landscape gardens.

Condition: Minor time toning to edges of sheets.

Minor creasing to bottom right corner of sheets, not affecting plate or image. Small chip to top left corner of sheets, not affecting plate or image.

[40655] £275

43. Circenses Ludi Pietro Santi Bartoli Etching Rome ex Typographia Domenici de Rubeis Hæredis Io. Iacobi de Rubeis ad Temp. S. Mæ. de Pace cum Priv. S. Pont. e Super. perm.

Image 195 x 336 mm, Plate 200 x 343 mm, Sheet 362 x 472 mm A depiction of a Roman relief panel of chariot racing, Plate 23 from Bartoli’s Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693). The scene depicts a charioteer and his crew. The charioteer, wearing a short tunic and a close-fitting cap, holds the reigns of his quadriga, a chariot with a team of four horses.

In his left hand, he grasps a short baton. Behind him stand three officials. One, looking at him, gestures towards the horses at the edge of the scene.

The presence of a rider on one of these horses suggests that this is not a scene of the actual race, but most likely the pompa circenses, a parade that preceded the spectacle and perhaps the festival it is attached to. Of the other two officials in the scene, one carries a baton similar to that which the charioteer holds, while the other raises a piece of cloth, perhaps in readiness to signal the charioteer.

Bellori’s notes to the plate identify this latter figure as a praetor, but if he is one of the organisers of the games, he is more likely to be an aedile.

The frieze upon which this plate was based was held at the time at the Palazzo Barberini, built on behalf of the Barberini Pope Urban VIII, and now the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica.

Roman chariot racing was probably adopted from the Etruscans, who in turn had been influenced by Greek sporting conquests involving chariots. Chariot races were a highlight of many of Rome’s festivals, referred to as Ludi Circenses after the arenas in which they were held. The most famous, and largest, of these arenas was the Circus Maximus. Because participation as a spectator in the games was open to all levels of Roman society, they were one of the most popular events in the Roman calendar, drawing huge crowds, and often having repercussions in other parts of Roman life. Men with political ambitions often staged games to win favour with the lower classes, and adherence to particular teams could even escalate into factional conflict, the most famous example being the Nika Riots in Constantinople during the reign of the emperor Justinian.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Minor time toning to edges of sheets. Minor creasing to bottom right corner of sheets, not affecting plate or image. Minor foxing to margins, not affecting plate or image.

[40656] £75

44. [The Amalthea Relief] Pietro Santi Bartoli Etching Romæ ex Officina Domenici de Rubeis Hæredis Io. Iacobi de Rubeis ad Temp. S. Mæ. de Pace cum Priv.

S. Pont. e Super. perm.

Image 348 x 256 mm, Plate 355 x 263 mm, Sheet 362 x 472 mm A depiction of the so-called Amalthea relief, Plate 26 from Bartoli’s Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693). The relief, now in the Museo Gregoriano Profano at the Vatican, was at the time of publication in the collections of the Palazzo Giustiniani.

Probably originally a decorative panel from an altar, the relief depicts the myth of Amalthea, a nurturing earth goddess or nymph, who is most frequently identified as the foster mother of Jupiter.

In the scene, the infant Jupiter is being fed goats milk from a horn held by Amalthea. Two of her goats play on the rocks below the infant, while a satyr plays a set of panpipes in the arch of the Dictaean Cave. In the upper register of the scene, a serpent coils itself around the a tree, the sacred oak of Jupiter. In the boughs of the tree is a nest of eaglets, while the eagle of Jove perches on the top of the cave, having caught a hare. In most classical origin myths, Zeus (Roman Jupiter) was destined to be eaten like his brothers and sisters by his father Cronus (Saturn). To avoid this fate for her son, Zeus’ mother gave Cronus a rock wrapped in swaddling, and instead hid her son in a cave of Mount Dicte on Crete.

Here he was raised by a woman known as Amalthea, the ‘tender goddess,’ whose goats provided sustenance to the infant, while the Corybants, armoured followers of the mother-goddess Rhea or Cybele, danced the Pyrrhic dance and clashed their shields to disguise the crying of the infant Zeus.

The horn with which Amalthea fed the future king of the gods later became the cornucopia, a symbol of wealth, nourishment, prosperity, and agricultural abundance.

Condition: Minor time toning to edges of sheets.

Minor creasing to bottom right corner of sheets, not affecting plate or image. Light ink-staining, possibly fingerprints, to top right edge of sheet, not affecting image.

[40670] £100

45. Veneris Emergentis Nativitas Pietro Santi Bartoli Etching Romæ ex Typographia Domenici de Rubeis Hæredis Io. Iacobi de Rubeis ad Temp. S. Mæ. de Pace cum Priv. S. Pont.

Image 220 x 430 mm, Plate 223 x 432 mm, Sheet 362 x 472 mm A depiction of a Roman relief sculpture of the birth of Venus, and the myth of Perseus, Plate 30 from Bartoli’s Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693). At the time of publication the relief was part of the collections of the powerful Mattei family at the Villa Celimontana in Rome, and likely came from excavations on or near the Caelian Hill.

The frieze depicts three separate mythological events. In the centre, the goddess Venus is born from the sea, sitting on a scallop shell and held aloft by a pair of fish-tailed tritons. A pair of winged cupids float nearby, resting on the tails of the tritons. To the left of this scene, the goddess Minerva holds the polished bronze shield that Perseus has just used as a mirror to escape the deadly gaze of the snake-haired medusa. Perseus, with the wings of Hermes at his ankles, holds the head of Medusa in one hand, and his dagger in the other. On the right of the scene, Andromeda, daughter of king Cepheus of Libya, is helped down from a rock by Perseus. The tail of Cetus, a sea-monster Perseus killed to save Andromeda, can be seen in the background.

The ocean seems to be the strongest linking device between these two separate mythological stories.

The connection between Venus and the sea is an obvious one, her birth from the sea-foam being depicted here. Many of the goddesses cult-sites were also located on the sea-coasts of the islands of Cyprus and Cythera.

The myth of the Aethiopian virgin Andromeda, by contrast, occurs on the sea coast of northern Africa.

Andromeda’s mother had foolishly boasted that her daughters were as beautiful as the Nereids, the sea-nymphs. Poseidon, god of the sea, took umbrage with the comparison and sent a sea-monster to terrorise the coasts of the kingdom, and would only be satisfied by Andromeda’s sacrifice. Luckily for the young woman, the hero Perseus was passing on his return from having slain Medusa, and having killed the sea-monster, married Andromeda and took her back to Greece, where together they founded the city of Mycenae.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Minor time toning to edges of sheets. Minor creasing to corners of sheets, not affecting plate or image.

[40671] £75

46. Chorus Veneris Aφροδίτηs Pietro Santi Bartoli Etching Petrus Sanctus Bartolus del. et sculp. Io. Iacob. de Rubeis formis Romæ ad Templum Pacis cum Priv. S. Pont.

Images 146 x 295 mm & 146 x 308mm, Plates 168 x 314 mm, Sheets 362 x 472 mm A pair of plates depicting a Roman relief sculpture of the retinue of Venus, Plates 31 and 32 from Bartoli’s Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693). The relief, probably from a Roman sarcophagus, depicts a sea thiasus, or procession, of the goddess Venus and a retinue of sea-dwellers. The goddess appears at the extreme left of the scene, bare-chested and riding a capricamp, or sea-goat. Above her are a pair of cupids. One holds a lit torch, the other a fish. Other figures in the scene include more cupids riding on dolphins, horse-headed hippocamps, the Roman god of harbours Portunus carrying an anchor, and the mythical figures Glaucus and Leucothea. Glaucus, here depicted with the lower body of a fish-scaled horse, was once a fisherman, who, upon consuming a sacred herb, became an immortal sea-monster. He is shown here leading a bull-headed taurocamp.

Leucothea, the ‘white goddess,’ was another minor goddess of the sea, here depicted with a billowing cloak that catches the sea-winds. Bellori’s notes indicated that the panel was part of the collection at a certain Palazzo Francisci which was ad ripas, ‘on the coast.’

In most versions of the birth of Venus, she is created from the sea-foam when the genitals of the skygod Uranus are severed and thrown into the sea

by Cronus. Her Greek name, Aphrodite, is often described as deriving from the word for foam, aphros. Her birth was usually connected with the sea coasts of her major cult-centres, on the islands of Cyprus and Cythera, and has been a popular motif in art since the classical period. The famous painting

by Botticelli follows a tradition that goes back to at least the fourth century BC, when the great artist Apelles painted the goddess appearing from the sea naked and fully grown on a scallop shell.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark on second sheet. Minor time toning to edges of sheets.

Small chip to bottom left corner of first sheet.

[40677] £200

47. Forum Palladium Sive Nerva in Regione Via Sacra Pietro Santi Bartoli Etching Domenicus de Rubeis Chalcographus Anno MDCXCIII. Romae ad Templum Sa. Ma. de Pace, cum Privil. Summi Pont. et Licentia Superiorum Image 123 x 136 mm, Plate 143 x 400 mm, Sheet 216 x 460 mm A depiction of a Roman relief panel from the Forum of Nerva, Plate 35 from Bartoli’s Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693). In the notes to the plate, Bartoli and Bellori, despite being well informed about the origins of the structure, continue to use the vernacular name of the Forum, the Foro Palladio, named for the temple of Minerva (Athena Pallas) that once stood at its western end.

The seated, veiled figure on the right of the scene is identified by Bellori as Pudicitia, the goddess of modesty. On the left of the scene, a personification of Lake Albano is depicted leaning against a rock, holding an ear of wheat and an urn of flowing water.

Every year at his villa in the Alban Hills, Domitian had celebrated the festival of the Quinquatria in honour of Minerva.

The Forum of Nerva, also known as the Forum Transitorium, was the smallest of the Imperial Fora.

The Forum occupied a narrow corridor of land between the earlier fora of Augustus and Vespasian.

Construction began in AD 85, during the reign of the emperor Domitian, but was finished and dedicated by his successor Nerva.

The Forum was transected by the Via Argiletum, a street joining the residential Subura and the Republican-era Forum, and frequented by booksellers and leather-workers. Unlike the other imperial fora, the Forum of Nerva was edged not by colonnades, but by a series of protruding columns.

In this, it is similar to a number of other Domitianic structures.

The frieze that decorated the inner wall of the forum featured scenes of the goddess Minerva, Domitian’s patron deity, and in particular the mythic cycle of Arachne, who was turned into a spider by Minerva for arrogantly boasting that her weaving skills eclipsed those of the goddess.

Condition: Foxing to sheet, mostly to bottom and right margins. Stain to right edge of image.

[25358] £50

48. Mulier Turrita Terra Designat Ut in Numis Hadriani Cum Inscriptione Restitutori Orbis Terrarum Vota Decennalia et Vicennalia Soluta Patet ex Clpeo Votivo Super Columna Rite Posito Cum Ti: Tulo Votis X.EX XX-Simulacrum Imperatoris Cum Reliovo Marmore Desideratur Pietro Santi Bartoli Etching Domenicus de Rubeis Chalcographus Anno MDCXCIII. Romae ad Templum Sa. Ma. de Pace, cum Privil. Summi Pont. et Licentia Superiorum Image 188 x 250 mm, Plate 208 x 265 mm, Sheet 220 x 273 mm A depiction of a Roman relief panel of the goddess Roma commemorating the Decennalia and Vicennalia of the emperor Hadrian, Plate 45 from Bartoli’s Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693). Bartoli describes it as having been in the Medici Gardens.

Hadrian (AD 76-138) was emperor of the Roman world between AD 117 and AD 138. Considered one of the ‘Five Good Emperors’ by Machiavelli, he was the adoptive son and successor of the emperor Trajan, a relative of his father. Both men hailed from Italica in southern Spain. A noted philhellene, Hadrian’s reign witnessed a flourishing of art and culture. He was also a capable military strategist, spending much of his reign with the army.

Although less militarily ambitious than his forebear, Trajan, his foreign policy consolidated Rome’s borders, abandoning Trajan’s conquests in Mesopotamia and building the famous wall in Britain that bears his name. However, the violent suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt in Jerusalem made him deeply unpopular with Jewish communities across the empire.

The Decennalia and Vicennalia were, respectively, celebrations of the tenth and twentieth year of an emperor’s reign. The celebrations had their origin in the actions of Augustus in 27 BC, who refused the supreme power in perpetuity in favour of a ten-year term. Decennalian celebrations of later emperors normally involved games, the minting of specific coinage, and the solemnization of the vota decennalia by the people. Because of the relatively turbulent nature of Roman imperial life, only a small number of emperors lived long enough to celebrate a vicennalia for their twentieth year, amongst them Augustus, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Diocletian, and Constantine.

Condition: Vertical centre fold as issued. Trimmed close to plate mark. Foxing to sheet and image.

[25357] £50

49. Triclinium sive Biclinium Pietro Santi Bartoli Etching Petrus Sanctus Bartolus delin. et sculp. Io. Iacob. de Rubeis formis Romæ ad Temp. Pacis cum Priv. S. Pont.

Image 211 x 350 mm, Plate 238 x 355 mm, Sheet 362 x 472 mm A depiction of a Roman relief sculpture of a dinner party, Plates 43 from Bartoli’s Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693). The relief, probably from a Roman sarcophagus, is listed by Bellori as having been displayed at the time of publication in the gardens of the Villa Montalto, a palazzo close to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

The collection of Roman bas reliefs at the Villa had been amassed predominantly by Pope Sixtus V in the late sixteenth century. The famous sarcophagus representing the Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne, now in the British Museum, came from this same collection, having been purchased by the art-dealer Thomas Jenkins in 1786 and sold on to the famous antiquarian Charles Townley.

Bellori’s commentary on the relief describes the scene as a semi-mythic reinterpretation of the Dinner of Trimalchio, the central event of Petronius’ nowfragmentary Satyricon. He identifies the overweight figure at the centre of the scene as Trimalchio himself, the gauche and pompous freedman whose attempts to impress his vapid guests with ostentatious food and poor attempts at literary erudition are met with ridicule from the work’s well-born but dissolute narrator. Trimalchio is the embodiment of aristocratic Roman attitudes towards the nouveau riche.

The more likely reading of this scene though is that it depicts the drunken Bacchus and his thiasus joining the dining couches, or triclinium, of Icarius of Athens and his daughter Erigone. The god is so undone by his wine that a small satyr is forced to support him from behind while another removes his shoes. Behind the central group, a young satyr holds the god’s thyrsus while an elderly silenus plays a double-reeded pipe. In the background, another satyr stands beside a statue-base or altar, garlanding a nearby house. Upon one of the columns supporting the draped-cloth walls of the triclinium sits a small tabella depicting a charioteer.

Unfortunately for the diners, the meeting will not end well. Bacchus, pleased with the hospitality of the jovial Icarius, gave his shepherds wine, but the shepherds, thinking their drunkenness to be the result of poison, turned upon the innocent Icarius and killed him. Erigone, distraught, hanged herself, but was resurrected by Bacchus and raised into the heavens as the star-sign Virgo.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Minor time toning and foxing to edges of sheet, not affecting image.

[40685] £125

50. Votvm Solvtvm Ioviac Ivnoni D.M. Sedentibvs In Throno Neptvno Et Mercvrio Iovi Nunciante Adstantib. In Museo Angelonio.

Pietro Santi Bartoli Etching Domenicus de Rubeis Chalcographus Anno MDCXCIII. Romae ad Templum Sa. Ma. de Pace, cum Privil. Summi Pont. et Licentia Superiorum Image 154 x 308 mm, Plate 179 x 312 mm, Sheet 347 x 453 mm A depiction of a Roman relief panel of the Olympian gods, Plate 46 from Bartoli’s Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693). The print depicts Jupiter and Juno, seated on thrones at the left of the scene, receiving a message from the wingfooted Mercury, who strides towards them with hand outstretched. In his other hand, he holds his caduceus. Attending the rulers of Olympus is Neptune, who stands in the background resting on his trident. The eagle of Jove, the peacock of Juno, and the ram of Mercury are also present.

This relief was once part of the collection of the so-called Museum Angelonium on Rome’s Pincian Hill. The Museum was the eclectic collection of paintings, prints, drawings, coins, sculpture, and curios amassed by the Italian historian, antiquarian, and connoisseur Francesco Angeloni (c.1559 - 29th November 1652).

A Perugian by birth, Angeloni moved to Rome to take up a position as notary to the future Pope Clement VIII. His interest in the art and history of Italy was wide-ranging, but he is principally remembered as a pioneering collector and academic of Roman numismatics.

Bartoli’s inclusion of a number of sculptural pieces from Angeloni’s museum in the Admiranda Romanatum Antiquitatum is unsurprising. Aside from being one of the leading antiquarians of his age and enjoying the valuable patronage of the papacy, Angeloni was also the uncle of Bartoli’s friend and colleague, Giovanni Pietro Bellori. Bellori spent much of his youth at his uncle’s house on the Pincian Hill, eventually inheriting it in his uncle’s will.

Condition: Crowned fleur-de-lis watermark. Vertical centre fold as issued. Foxing to image and margins.

Creases to sheet, including a large crease across the bottom right corner of plate. Minor tears and chips to edges of sheet not affecting image.

[25397] £50

51. Cupidinem Psyche Pietro Santi Bartoli Etching Romæ ex Chalcographia Domenici de Rubeis Hæredis Io. Iacobi de Rubeis ad Templ. S. Mariæ de Pace cum Priv. S. P. et Super. perm.

Image 124 x 443 mm, Plate 142 x 447 mm, Sheet 362 x 472 mm A depiction of a Roman relief sculpture of the Three Graces with Cupid and Psyche, Plate 68 from Bartoli’s Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693). The relief, probably from a Roman sarcophagus, is listed by Bellori as having been displayed at the time of publication in the collections of the Mattei family, most probably in their primary residence, the Villa Celimontana on the ancient Caelian Hill.

The three graces are depicted in the standard pose at the centre of the relief, a heavy fabric drape hanging behind them. On either side, a winged cupid reaches out to them. Flanking the Graces are a pair of cherubic Cupids and Pysches, the butterfly wings of the latter being described by Bellori as representing the immortality of the soul. Another pair of winged cupids bookend the scene, the one on the left offering up an ear of grain from the urn of first fruits at his feet.

The connecting elements for the two mythological representations on this relief seem to be love, beauty, and the goddess Venus. The Charites, or Graces, were the children of Jupiter, either by Venus, or by the sea-nymph Eurynome.

Although their number varies, the most common three are Aglaea, goddess of brilliance, Euphrosyne, goddess of mirth, and Thalia, goddess of plenty.

In the Classical Greek world, the graces, like most goddesses, were always depicted clothed, but by the Roman era, the familiar nude trio had become the standard.

Likewise, Cupid, as the son of Venus, appears frequently in classical art. The story of Cupid and Psyche is attested in art from as early as at least the 4th century BC, though the earliest literary tradition for the myth comes from Apuleius’ Metamorphosis, composed in the second century AD. Apuleius’ tale is laden with allegorical significance, Neoplatonic symbolism, and allusions to mystery cult through its strong focus on concepts of life, death, love, resurrection, sexual awareness, and spiritual awakening. As a result, depictions of Cupid and Psyche are relatively common in Roman funerary art, perhaps designed to signify the conquering power of love over death.

Condition: Minor time toning and foxing to edges of sheet, not affecting image.

[40689] £100

52. Meleagri Interitus Pietro Santi Bartoli Etching Petrus Sanctus Bartolus del. et sculp. Io. Iacobæ de Rubeis formis Romæ ad Templum Pacis cum Priv. S. Pont.

Image 126 x 419 mm, Plate 151 x 422 mm, Sheet 362 x 472 mm A depiction of a Roman relief sculpture of the death of Meleager, Plate 69 from Bartoli’s Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693). The panel depicts the death of the Greek hero Meleager, following the famous Calydonian Boar Hunt.

Meleager, son of the King of Calydon, led a band of heroes to hunt and kill a monstrous boar, that had been terrorising the city of Calydon because of a slight given to the goddess Artemis by Meleager’s father Oeneus. Among the heroes was Atalanta, a virgin huntress, whom Meleager immediately fell in love with.

After the hunt, Meleager chose to present the boar’s hide to Atalanta, as, of all the assembled heroes, she had struck the beast first. An argument ensued because of his decision, and in the scuffle, Meleager defended Atalanta by slaying a number of the other heroes, including his brother and uncle.

Upon hearing of the news, Meleager’s own mother engineered his death, by burning a brand that the Fates had decreed would end Meleager’s life with its final flame.

At the far left of the scene, Meleager’s mother, Althea, can be seen placing the fatal brand into the flames, shielding her face from the heat of the fire. The two women on the left are the Furies, dire goddesses invoked by acts of transgression like the murder of one’s own family.

In the centre of the scene, the dying Meleager is laid out on a low couch, his sword and gorgonemblazoned shield abandoned nearby. His weeping sisters try in vain to awaken their brother with magical herbs, while on the extreme right, the maiden huntress Atalanta shields her face in sorrow at the death of her champion, her hunting dog beside her.

The relief, probably from a Roman sarcophagus, is listed by Bellori as having been displayed at the time of publication in the collections of a certain Aedes de Valle, probably the Palazzo Valle of the famous art collector and antiquarian, Cardinal Andrea della Valle. della Valle had inherited a large collection of Roman marble sculpture from his family’s estates, and grew to be one of the most significant collectors of Roman art during the early sixteenth century. His house was enlarged to accommodate his collections by the architect Lorenzetto Lotti, who created a loggiastyle courtyard garden, influenced by the Vatican’s Belvedere Cortile.

The collection, presented in the rus in urbe manner popular in the Roman imperial period, was a great inspiration to 16th century visitors, particularly Martin van Heemskerck and Hieronymus Cock, who both produced drawings and engravings of the courtyard and significant pieces of della Valle’s collection.

By the time of Bartoli’s publication, most of the collection had been purchased by the Medici family, where it was displayed along with the rest of their collections in the gardens of the Villa de Medici.

Scenes of the death of Meleager were popular subjects in the Roman period, particularly in funerary art. The hunt itself gave the sculptor an almost unparalleled mythic subject for exploring dynamic movement in a scene featuring numerous figures.

The pathos of Meleager’s death meanwhile provided an appropriate stimulus for reflection upon the vicissitudes of life. Similar compositions to that depicted can be seen on a number of Roman sarcophagi, including examples in the Louvre, the Getty Museum, and the Uffizi.

Condition: Minor time toning to edges of sheet, not affecting image.

[40692] £100

53. Quatuor Anni Tempora Pietro Santi Bartoli Etching Domenicus de Rubeis Chalcographus Anno MDCXCIII. Romae ad Templum Sa. Ma. de Pace, cum Privil. Summi Pont. et Licentia Superiorum Image 180 x 392 mm, Plate 204 x 398 mm, Sheet 362 x 472 mm A depiction of a Roman allegorical relief sculpture of the Four Seasons, Plate 78 from Bartoli’s Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693).

Now in the Dumbarton Oaks Museum at Harvard University, it was at the time of publication part of the collection at the Palazzo Barberini. The relief is the front panel of a Roman sarcophagus of the fourth century AD. In the centre, the couple for whom it was carved appear in half-length portrait enclosed in a roundel. The man wears a broad-folded toga trabea, and carries a scroll, while his wife wears a loose fitting dress with a flowing drape behind her head. Around the edge of the roundel are symbols of the zodiac. On each side of the roundel are personifications of the seasons. All are depicted as young cherubic figures with large feathered wings and curled hair.

The first figure, Winter, is the only one to wear any clothing other than a loose-fitting cloak worn around the shoulders. He wears a type of tight-buttoned one piece, covering his legs, but open at the front to reveal his genitals, stomach, and chest. Such a garment is most regularly seen in depictions of Attis, the Phrygian companion of Cybele. He also wears a thin crown of reeds, while a boar stands nearby his foot.

Next to him is Spring, whose head is garlanded with flowers and new vines. At his feet, a shepherd milks a goat. On the other side of the roundel, Summer is represented by the sprigs of wheat at his brow and the wheat-sheaf carried by the small putto at the base of his cloak. Last in the line is Autumn, crowned with autumn leaves and a bunch of grapes. The agricultural element of the scene is enhanced by the roundel’s support, made up of more putti engaged in agrarian labour, gathering grapes and fruit into two overflowing baskets.

Funerary art depicting agricultural themes and the cycle of the seasons was relatively popular in the period from the second to the fourth centuries AD. Among the most famous examples are the Four Seasons Sarcophagus in the Capitoline Museum and the Triumph of Bacchus Sarcophagus in the Met, though numerous funerary urns, tombstones, and other burial reliefs feature depictions of the Four Seasons. The inclusion of the zodiac on this particular example is also interesting. During the fourth century, agrarian iconography was increasingly co-opted into Christian funerary imagery. Although the inclusion of the zodiac in this scene may simply have been an aesthetic choice by the couple, or even an example of the use of precarved funerary furniture, it is tempting to see it as an example of personal preference based on the couple’s particular religious or philosophic views on a celestial afterlife.

Condition: Minor time toning to edges of sheet, not affecting image.

[40694] £150

In fact, the portrait bust is a Renaissance addition, carved by the sculptor Orfeo Boselli by request of Cardinal Colonna, who had obviously interpreted the eagle as a symbol of apotheosis, akin to the very similar representation of Claudius’ apotheosis on the famous sardonyx cameo by Skylax now in the Paris National Library.

In truth, the eagle was likely the crowning decoration of a funeral monument for the Roman general of the Augustan era, Marcus Valerius Messala Corvinus, whose Villa on the Palatine and Gardens on the Pincian Hill yielded numerous sculptural treasures to collectors in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century. After presentation of the sculpture group to King Philip IV of Spain in 1664, the bust was removed.

54. Imperatoris Claudii Apotheosis Sive Consecratio Pietro Santi Bartoli Etching Domenicus de Rubeis Chalcographus Anno MDCXCIII. Romae ad Templum Sa. Ma. de Pace, cum Privil. Summi Pont. et Licentia Superiorum [1693] Image 310 x 234 mm, Plate 340 x 238 mm, Sheet 362 x 472 mm A depiction of the famous Roman marble sculpture usually referred to as the Apotheosis of Claudius, Plate 80 from Bartoli’s Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693). The sculpture, part of which is now in the Prado Museum in Madrid, was originally in the collection of Cardinal Girolamo Colonna.

It depicts a monumental eagle, the symbol of the god Jupiter, with wings outstretched, grasping in its claws the thunderbolt of Jupiter and the orb of the world. It perches on a huge collection of military trophies, which include cuirasses, shields and swords of various type, anchors, prows of ships, crested helmets, and even a lion-skin. Above the eagle is a bust of the emperor Claudius, who wears a gorgonheaded aegis, a ribboned diadem, and a radiatecrown, the last intended to illustrate his divinity.

Claudius was emperor of the Roman world from AD 41 to AD 54. Chosen by the praetorian guard after the assassination of the emperor Caligula because they believed he would be their puppet, Claudius proved to be a relatively able and level-headed ruler. In his later years though, he was remembered for being dominated by his freedmen and wives, particularly his third wife Agrippina, the mother of Nero.

His death is described by Suetonius as having been engineered by Agrippina, through his ingestion of poisonous, or poisoned, mushrooms. He was given divine honours almost immediately by Nero and the Senate. Popular sentiment of his deification and the last years of his reign is coloured heavily

by Seneca’s Apocolocyntosis, a satire in which the boorish Claudius, having been elevated to godhood, is quickly considered a fool by the other gods.

Condition: Minor time toning to edges of sheet, not affecting image.

[40695] £100

The muses themselves occupy the lower reaches of the mountain, each depicted with a symbol or attribute of her artistic, literary, or scientific function. In a nearby cave is Apollo, dressed in an effeminate robe and holding his lyre, his bow and quiver abandoned, made redundant by the peace and graceful arts of Helicon. At the bottom of the scene, before a heavily-draped colonnade, is a procession in honour of the great Homer, chief of the Greek poets.

Homer himself, depicted as an older bearded man, sits upon a throne, his youthful attendants described by the inscription as personifications of his great epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Behind him, Oikoumene and Kironos place a garland on his head, signifying the honour that will be shown to him by Time and all in the Inhabited World. Before his throne, Myth and History prepare an altar for the sacrifice of a long-horned bull, while Poetry, Tragedy, and Comedy praise him with uplifted arms and blazing torches. Behind them, Physis, the personification of Human Nature, is depicted as a small child, who, because of Homer, will be nurtured by the Moral Virtues, the goddesses of Excellence, Mindfulness, Good Faith, and Wisdom.

The relief’s original function is unknown, though the British Museum suggests it was most likely a 55. Homeri Apotheosis sive Consecratio Delineata commemorative relief for a poetic competition, ex Antiquo Marmore in Marinensi Columnentium pointing out the statue of an unknown poet to the Principum ac Magni Comestabilis Ditione Eruto right of the relief, next to the cave of Apollo. The Pietro Santi Bartoli inscription below the figure of Zeus identifies Etching its sculptor as one Archelaos of Priene, son of Romæ ex Chalcographia Domenici de Rubeis Apollonios. It is of Hellenistic date, and almost Hæredis Io. Iacobi de Rubeis ad Templ. S. M. de certainly came from Alexandria during the reign Pace cum Privil. Summi Pont. et Super perm. Anno of Ptolemy IV. Indeed, a number of commentators 1693. have illustrated the similarity in portraiture between Image 356 x 272 mm, Plate 427 x 276 mm, Sheet Ptolemy and his queen Arsinoe III to the figures 467 x 362 mm of Time and the Inhabited World standing behind Homer’s throne. At some stage, probably in the late A depiction of the famous marble relief of the Republic or early imperial period, the relief was Apotheosis of Homer, Plate 81 from Bartoli’s brought to Italy and set up on the Via Appia near Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum (1693). The relief, now in the British Museum, is a representation the town of Bovillae, where is was rediscovered and added to the collections of the Colonna family of Mount Helicon, the Hill of the Muses, upon which was the Hippocrene spring, sacred waters that and displayed at their Villa at Marino, near Castelli Romani in Lazio. It was purchased by the British allegedly gave the drinker poetic inspiration. At the Museum in 1819. summit of the Boeotian mountain sits Zeus, king of the gods, languidly reclining against the rock with Condition: Minor time toning to edges of sheet, not his eagle perched nearby. He meets the up-turned affecting image. gaze of Mnemosyne, the Titan goddess of Memory, whose children by Zeus were the nine muses, the [40696] personified deities of artistic inspiration. £300

Rossi’s Views of Rome’s Lost Wonders The Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta was published in 1699 by the Roman book-dealer, printer, and antiquarian, Domenico Rossi. The work, a collection of plates designed to celebrate the architectural and archaeological achievements of ancient Rome, featured over 130 depictions of Roman temples, public buildings, amphitheatres, gardens, private villas, and monuments. Although unsigned, most of the plates were probably engraved

by Rossi’s friend and collaborator, Pietro Santi Bartoli.

The majority of the views are actually re-engravings of an earlier series of Roman buildings published by the antiquarian Giacomo Lauro in 1612 in his Antiquae Urbis Splendor. Lauro’s original work was published in four parts. The first detailed Roman customs, with a brief history of the city and its hills and public buildings. The second and third enlarged upon this theme with further illustrations of Roman buildings and monuments, both public and private.

The fourth presented a number of views of notable ruins, as well as images of Roman structures that had been reused in the present day, such as a the Villa d’Este at Tivoli and a particularly spectacular scene of a fireworks display at the Castel St Angelo. In most successive reprints though this fourth part was omitted, as it was in Rossi’s 1699 edition, owing to the fact that Rossi and his audience were interested predominantly in Rome’s storied past, rather than the churches, palazzi, and ruinous monuments of the present.

Rossi later published a companion to the Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta, called the Collectio Antiquitatum Urbis, in which the engravings from Lauro’s fourth volume were combined with other views of the contemporary city, its cathedrals, churches, villas, and ruins. A number of Rossi’s own views from this series would later be re-engraved and republished by Piranesi.

Academically, the Antiquae Urbis Splendor is significant for portraying the buildings as the artist believed they would have been at their peak, rather than as they appeared in their contemporary seventeenth century setting. Of particular note are a number of illustrations, which, while fanciful, attempt to depict monuments that by Lauro and Rossi’s age had been completed erased from the archaeological record. Such depictions provide a fascinating glimpse at the breadth of seventeenth century knowledge of the Roman architectural past, and suggest that Lauro relied just as much upon descriptions of buildings in the classical text as he did the ruins of the structures themselves.

Apart from providing some of the very earliest representations of Roman buildings, in many ways, men like Lauro and Rossi also pre-empted the detailed archaeological analysis championed by Piranesi and his followers a century later. Lauro’s copious notes to the plates draw heavily from textual evidence, but, as he admits, he is less interested in rigid historical accuracy as he is evoking a sense of wonder for the Roman past. As a result, his Roman buildings are usually depicted isolated from their urban context. The impression at all times is one of an artist who is intensely proud of his Roman ancestry.

Giacomo Lauro (fl.1583 - 1645) was an Italian engraver, printmaker, antiquarian, and connoisseur, most famous for his 1599 perspective map of Rome, and the publication, between 1612 and 1628, of a series of views of Roman buildings called the Antiquae Urbis Splendor. Very little is known of his life outside of these two works. He may be the son of another Giacomo Lauro of Treviso (1550-1605), though the fact that Lauro frequently signed his name as ‘Jacobus Laurus Romanus’ would suggest a Roman, rather than Trevisan, origin.

Considering the rudimentary nature of many of the plates from his Antiquae Urbis Splendor, it would be easy to see Lauro as an engraver of only moderate talent, but his cartography, and the small number of portraits in his name indicate he was an artist of some skill. Instead, the Antiquae Urbis Splendor should be seen as Lauro’s attempt at producing a work that demonstrates his skill as an antiquarian and historian, the images intended to elucidate and educate.

Domenico de’ Rossi (1659 – 1730) was an Italian publisher, engraver, bookseller, and antiquarian.

The scion of a large and prolific family of printers, Domenico inherited the Rossi printshop from his father, Giovanni Giacomo de’ Rossi. The printworks was established near the church of Santa Maria della Pace in 1633 by Guiseppe de’Rossi, who specialised in producing engravings for designers. Under Giovanni Giacomo and Domenico, the workshop reached its zenith, with father and son working on engravings on many diverse subjects, but with a speciality in publishing works of antiquarian interest.

Domenico’s friendship and collaboration with the engraver Bartoli and the antiquarian Bellori proved fruitful, and in the period between the early 1690s and Domenico’s death in 1730, the group published numerous works on Roman architecture, sculpture, history, portraiture, ceramics, oil lamps, and funerary iconography. In Domenico’s later life, his connections with the influential Maffei family secured the Rossi imprint Papal privilege.

Following Domenico’s death, the Rossi printshop became the Calcographia Camerale, then the Regia Calcographia, and finally the current Calcographia Nazionale.

Pietro Santi Bartoli (1635 – 7th November 1700) was an Italian draughtsman, architect, antiquarian, and engraver. Born in Perugia, Bartoli apprenticed with Jean Lemaire and Nicholas Poussin. Although he would give up painting following Poussin’s death to focus on engraving, the classical scenes that were the speciality of Poussin and Lemaire were probably responsible for the young Bartoli’s interest in classical subjects.

In collaboration with the antiquarian Bellori and the publishers Giovanni and Domenico de Rossi, Bartoli produced a number of works documenting the art, architecture, history, and culture of ancient Rome.

Of particular note are his series of 128 etchings depicting details of the frieze on the Column of Trajan, and a number of plates of Roman monuments after Giacomo Lauro that were published by Domenico de Rossi in his Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta in 1699.

relatively rare. The most famous naval monument was the Rostra, a speakers platform near to where Duilius’ column once stood. The Rostra was so named for the six ship’s beaks (rostrum) that adorned one face of the arcaded structure. The beaks were the rams of defeated Volscian warships from the Battle of Antium, Rome’s earliest significant naval victory, in 338 BC. Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Clean, crisp impression with full margins.

[40724] £120 56. Columna Rostrata Quæ Adhuc Visitur in Capitolio in Ædibus Conservator cum Omnibus Victoriis Navalibus Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 146 x 233 mm, Plate 180 x 236 mm, Sheet 265 x 402 mm A fanciful depiction of the Rostral Column in the Forum Romanum, Plate 17 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The plate depicts the victory column of Gaius Duilius, the victorious admiral of the Battle of Mylae in 260 BC. The column, topped by a heroic figure holding a spear and shield, is ornamented with the prows of conquered Carthaginian ships.

The column’s base features a large dedicatory inscription, parts of which have been replicated at the base of the plate by Lauro. Behind the column, Roman war galleys perform a demonstration of manouvres before a large assembled crowd, which stands on an arcaded platform reminiscent of a naumachia, an arena for the staging of mock naval battles.

By Lauro’s day, the rostral column of Duilius was no longer extant, though sections of its inscriptional column base were preserved in the Capitoline Museums. Lauro’s copious notes to the plate are a discussion of various textual traditions for naval victories, drawing on a diverse range of sources including Silius Italicus, Florus, Orosius, Gellius, Pliny, and Velleius Paterculus. Naval triumphal monuments like the column of Gaius Duilius were

57. Capitolium Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 143 x 232 mm, Plate 180 x 236 mm, Sheet 265 x 402 mm A depiction of the Capitoline Hill during the Roman imperial period, Plate 23 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The plate depicts the various temples and monuments of the Capitoline, including the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus at centre, with those of Minerva and Juno, the other two members of the Capitoline Triad, on either side.

The walled sanctuary of the Triad is flanked by a pair of obelisks topped with orbs, and five smaller monuments adorn the rocky slopes outside the enclosure.

Lauro’s copious notes to the plate are a discussion of history of the Capitoline from Spurius Tarpeius,

warden of the Capitoline under Romulus, to the reign of the emperor Domitian, drawing upon the textual evidence of Livy, Varro, and Plutarch.

The Capitoline Hill was the ancient citadel of the Romans, and the site of the Temple of the Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. In the Medieval period, the Capitol became the seat of the Senate and government of the Roman commune with the building of the Palazzo dei Conservatori and the Palazzo Senatorio. In the mid-sixteenth century, the area was redeveloped along a plan devised

by Michelangelo. A third building was added, the Palazzo Nuovo, and a grand staircase built.

By Lauro’s time, these later additions meant that very little of the Roman-era Capitoline Hill was still visible, so his depiction in this plate is clearly influenced by the layout of the Capitoline of his day, with the buildings flanking a central courtyard. Such a decision, while historically inaccurate, may have been taken to better enable his audience to orient themselves and picture the monuments that once stood on the site.

A fanciful depiction of Rome’s Tiber Island, Plate 24 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta.

The plate depicts the Tiber Island in its height, when it was modelled, using Travertine slabs, to resemble a Roman galley. The obelisk in the centre of the island may be intended to represent the ship’s mast. The two bridges connecting the island to the Tiber’s banks are also depicted, the Pons Fabricius in the foreground, and the Pons Cestius, leading to Trastevere, in the background.

On the island itself, the Temples of Faunus, Jupiter Lycaon, and Berecynthia are depicted at left, while the important shrine, temple, and hospital of Aesculapius occupies the other half of the island.

Drawing mainly upon the textual tradition of Valerius Maximus, Lauro’s copious notes to the plate describe how a Roman delegation travelled to the city of Epidauros during a time of plague, to seek the statue of the healing-god Asclepius. The delegation brought back a sacred snake on their ship. When they reached the city, the snake slithered off onto the Tiber Island, prompting the Romans to establish a cult centre to the god on the site.

Condition: Clean, crisp impression with full margins. By Lauro’s time, most of the travertine cladding that had been added to the ship-shaped Tiber [40751] Island had been removed for reuse in Medieval and £75 Rennaissance monuments and churches around the City. Today only a few blocks of the ship’s prow remain in situ, though the Pons Fabricius still connects the island to the left bank of the Tiber. The temple of Aesculapius and its hospital continued in use until late antiquity. In the Medieval era, the site was home to a basilica to Saint Bartholomew, the Catholic saint of healing, and in 1584, a hospital was established by the Order of St John.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Clean, crisp impression with full margins.

[40752] £100 58. Insula Tiberina Olim Iovis Licaonii Hodie Insula S. Bartholomaei Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 143 x 231 mm, Plate 178 x 234 mm, Sheet 265 x 402 mm

As Rome’s wars expanded her territory, the symbolic ‘foreign land’ was transferred to the nearby Circus Flaminius, where a war hostage would hold a piece of earth near to a specially erected wooden column.

Condition: Clean, crisp impression with full margins.

[40753] £100

59. Columna Bellica ad Portam Carmentalem Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 144 x 231 mm, Plate 178 x 233 mm, Sheet 265 x 402 mm A depiction of the Columna Bellica, Plate 26 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The plate depicts the Column of War at centre. Its column base is inscribed with the SPQR ensign of the Roman Senate and People, and topped with a figure of Victory. To the left is the circular Temple of Bellona, goddess of war. The Circus Flaminius, with its obelisk, can be seen at the far right.

The scene also depicts a number of figures. In the foreground, a man in full military attire brandishes a pair of spears, while the two consuls look on.

Behind, the Roman army musters in full regalia.

Lauro’s copious notes to the plate describe the early history of the area, and the ceremonies involved in the Roman declaration of war, drawing upon the textual evidence of Silius Italicus, Vergil, Varro, and Livy.

This plate depicts one of Rome’s oldest military ceremonies, namely the declaration of war against a foreign enemy. In Rome’s early history, the territory of such an enemy was often represented by the land just outside the Porta Carmentalis, one of the gates in the old Servian Wall, and thus just beyond the borders of the city of Rome proper. A soldier in full armour would hurl a spear into the area around the so-called Columna Bellica, a war column which stood before the Temple of Bellona.

60. De Ponte Et Porta Triumphali in Vaticano Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 145 x 232 mm, Plate 178 x 235 mm, Sheet 255 x 402 mm A depiction of the apocryphal Bridge of Nero, also known as the Bridge of Triumph, and an example of a Roman triumphal arch, Plate 69 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The plate depicts a Roman triumph in procession along the Via Triumphalis. The standards of the legions are held aloft by the army as it crosses a bridge over the Tiber. In the foreground is an example of a Roman triumphal arch, topped with a statue of Victory in a quadriga, and featuring roundels reminiscent of those of Hadrian from the Arch of Constantine.

In the sky, an angel in flowing robes blows a trumpet and holds aloft a victory wreath, perhaps suggesting the triumph of Christianity through the matyrs of the Vatican. A small Roman fishing boat can be seen on the river, and the temples and buildings of the city line the distant banks of the Tiber.

Lauro’s copious notes to the plate describe the path taken by triumphing generals, as well as the proximity of the bridge to various Christian and pre-Christian structures on the Vatican, including the Circus of Nero, the temple of Apollo, the Mausoleum of Hadrian, Old Saint Peter’s Basilica, the Schola Saxonum, and the church of Saint Petronilla.

Unlike most of Lauro’s other plates, this example does not contain any references to classical sources in the author’s commentary. The reason for this is that the so-called Pons Triumphalis, alternatively known as the Pons Neronianus, does not appear in the textual record until the Medieval era. The first specific reference to such a bridge comes from the popular, and much copied, travel-book, Mirabilia Urbis Romae.

Lauro’s triumphal arch is speculative, though is probably intended to represent the now lost arch of Arcadius, Honorius, and Theodosius, decreed by the Senate in honour of their victories against the Goths. By Lauro’s day, it had been at least a century since any trace of the structure was visible, though folk traditions and earlier records of the area evidently recorded its approximate position. The initiating of triumphs from the Vatican hill began first under Titus. Before this date, the triumphal procession mustered on the Campus Martius, though the proliferation of Imperial building projects in this region had encroached on space to such an extent that the relatively sparse Vatican was a preferred alternative.

The Pons Neronianus, if such a structure was indeed built by the emperor, probably ran close to the current course of the Ponte sant’ Angelo, the former Pons Aelius of Trajan. It was likely intended to link the Campus Martius with the Gardens of Agrippina and the Circus of Caligula in the Vatican. The latter was redeveloped and renamed the Circus of Nero at a similar date to the bridge.

61. Naumachia Neronis Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 144 x 230 mm, Plate 180 x 233 mm, Sheet 258 x 402 mm A reconstruction of the Naumachia of the emperor Nero, Plate 69 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The plate depicts a mock navalbattle being staged in an arcaded circular arena, in form similar to Lauro’s representations of Roman amphitheatres. Banks of spectators line the niches and apses of the arena, and two figures, one of them perhaps Nero himself, can be seen in the doorway of the central building.

The various sizes and types of warship are populated by armed men, probably criminals or war captives sentenced to death. On the right side of the plate, an aqueduct adjoining the naumachia supplies the water, while a colossal fountain on the opposite side feeds a stream that presumably flows to the Tiber.

Lauro’s copious notes to the plate describe the arena as having stood in the Vatican, in close proximity to Condition: Clean, crisp impression with full margins. where the Basilica of St Peter now stands. In this, he is probably mistaken, as the naumachia of Nero is described by Suetonius and Dio as having been [40754] built in the Campus Martius. The remains of another £120 naumachia discovered in the Vatican are probably those of a similar structure built by Trajan.

Despite the intense interest by post-Roman audiences in mock naval-combats and the arenas constructed for their staging, the actual evidence

for naumachiae suggests that they were relatively rare and unusual. The sheer expense and energy required to deliver such entertainments must have been prohibitive, so it is no surprise that the only examples given by the classical authors are in connection with imperial celebrations.

The first documented naumachia was staged by Caesar as part of the celebrations of his quadruple triumph, in which a basin was excavated and filled by the Tiber. Similar performances in temporary basins were also staged by Augustus, Titus, and Trajan, while Claudius made use of the natural Fucine Lake.

Nero seems to have been the first to build a dedicated arena for such a spectacle, lining the banks of the water with wooden seats. Whether or not the Colosseum was used for such events remains a subject of debate. While the complex apparatus beneath the floor of the colosseum would suggest that a feat such as flooding the arena was impossible, Suetonius suggests that Domitian did so for its inauguration in AD80.

A depiction of the Meta Sudans, Plate 135 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The plate depicts the fountain as Lauro imagined it would have been during the imperial period. An elongated cone, like the conical metae used as turning points in Roman horse and chariot arenas, the fountain is positioned between the Colosseum, at left, and the Arch of Constantine to the right. It discharges two streams of water into a basin, from which smaller spouts empty into a low trough.

A crowd gathers around the base of the fountain to drink and collect water in urns and dishes. Lauro’s notes for this plate are unusually short, simply describing the fountain’s position between the two more famous monuments, though he does note that coins of the emperor Titus seem to depict the fountain topped by a statue of Jupiter.

The Meta Sudans, or ‘sweating cone,’ was a large fountain built by the Roman emperor Domitian at the end of the 1st century AD. In addition to the fact that the monument was cone-shaped, it was also a literal meta, marking the point where the Triumphal Way turned into the Roman Forum. The Condition: Clean, crisp impression with full margins. description of the fountain as ‘sweating’ is probably in reference to how the water was distributed, though as the fountain no longer survives it is impossible [40755] to determine how. Most likely, the water seeped £120 from the top or sides of the monument, rather than gushing out as Lauro depicts it in this plate.

Although the marble had been stripped from the monument in the Medieval period, in Lauro’s day the fountain’s brick core would still have been extant, though the water had long ceased to flow.

The ruins of the Meta Sudans were not finally removed until the 20th century, when Mussolini demolished it to make way for a road around the base of the Colosseum.

Condition: Clean, crisp impression with full margins.

62. Meta Sudans Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 146 x 233 mm, Plate 178 x 235 mm, Sheet 262 x 402 mm

[40756] £75

After Nero’s death, it was moved, and the attributes changed to resemble Sol, god of the Sun. Finally, at centre, is a statue of Hercules carrying his club and a golden apple, which Domitian is purported to have had built in the Forum.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Crisp impression with full margins. Minor foxing and time-toning to sheet.

[40757] £100

63. De Urbis Colossis Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 147 x 232 mm, Plate 180 x 235 mm, Sheet 263 x 402 mm A depiction of the various colossal statues of the city of Rome, Plate 137 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The plate depicts the seven colossal statues attested in the textual record.

Lauro’s copious notes list each with a description of where they once stood, as well as a preamble explaining the history of colossal statuary, its connection to the famous Colossus of Rhodes.

The first, Apollo, is depicted with his lyre. Lauro explains that it was 30 cubits high, and once stood on the Capitoline, where it had been brought from the Pontic city of Apollonia, now the modern Bulgarian city of Sozopol. The second is the statue of Jupiter from the Campus Martius, decreed by the emperor Claudius, and depicted with his eagle, orb, and thunderbolt. The third is another statue of Apollo, again with lyre, which stood in library of the Temple of Augustus.

The fourth, on the opposite side of the plate, is is another of Jupiter, set up by Quintus Servilius on the Capitoline. Fifth is yet another Jupiter set up

by Publius Lentulus on the Capitoline to replace the former. The sixth is the famous Colossus of Nero, engineered for the emperor by Zenodorus to stand with his Golden House, and after which the Colosseum is named.

64. Palatium Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 144 x 232 mm, Plate 180 x 235 mm, Sheet 258 x 402 mm A fanciful depiction of Rome’s Palatine Hill, Plate 110 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The plate depicts the Palatine with particular reference to the structures of the first century AD. The view is oriented to the south-west, as if looking at the hill from the Circus Maximus. In the foreground are the arches of the Domus Augusti.

The central horse-shoe shaped courtyard is labelled the Atrium of Augustus. Behind this is the Temple of Apollo Palatinus, Augustus’ patron deity. Behind this, the pair of stadium-shaped buildings labelled ‘Theatridium’ are probably based upon the small hippodrome that occupies one side of Domitian’s Domus Augustana.

Like many of Lauro’s other plates, this view of the Palatine is intended to provide an idealised, rather than historic, vision of Roman architecture. The duplication of the hippodrome has been done to provide the plan with balance, and with little regard to the physical remains of Domitian’s palace that would have been visible in Lauro’s day. Lauro’s copious notes to the plate describe the various improvements made to the structure, from the time of Numa Pompilius to the early imperial period.

The Palatine is the centremost of Rome’s hills and occupies the most prominent position in the early history of Rome. Deriving its name from the Arcadian town of Pallantium, the Palatine was the reputed site of the Lupercal, the sacred cave in which the twins Romulus and Remus were suckled by the she-wolf. In the regal period, the Palatine was the seat of the Kings of Rome. By the late Republic, it was the preferred location for the houses of Rome’s highest ranking families.

Following the construction of the Houses of Livia and Augustus, the Palatine became more or less the exclusive residence of the Imperial family, with successive emperors enlarging upon earlier palaces and building their own. The most significant of these was constructed by the emperor Domitian.

His sprawling collection of palaces, pleasure houses, gardens, fountains, bathhouses, galleries, and sporting facilities was essentially composed of two separate structures: the Domus Flavia, which contained lawcourts and administrative rooms, and the Domus Augustana, which was the emperor’s private residence.

After the medieval period, the Palatine became a papal garden, after acquisition by the powerful Farnese family in the mid-sixteenth century.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Clean, crisp impression with full margins.

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65. Amphitheatrum Tauri Statilii ad Templum S. Crucis in Hierusalem Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 143 x 231 mm, Plate 177 x 233 mm, Sheet 258 x 402 mm A depiction of the Amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus on the Campus Martius, Plate 107 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The plate depicts the arena with a very similar structure to the much larger and still extant Flavian Amphitheatre, better known as the Colosseum. The amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus is shown as being composed of three colonnaded levels, providing two banks of seating within. Lauro has depicted a quarter of the monument in an architectural cutaway, to show the building’s footprint, as well as a cross-section of the internal structure of the seating, corridors, and staircases. Lauro’s copious notes to the plate describe the monument and the history of permanent theatres and amphitheatres from the first century BC onwards.

Lauro’s view of the Amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus is putative, as the structure was completely destroyed in the Great Fire of AD 64. Constructed in wood, and dedicated in 29 BC by the general Titus Statilius Taurus, it was the first permanent amphitheatre in the city of Rome. Taurus was a novus homo, who, after an early career in the army of Marc Antony, declared for Octavian in the Civil War and commanded the Caesarian land-forces during the Battle of Actium.

The amphitheatre was paid for in full from Taurus’ own resources, and was part of a flurry of building projects of entertainment venues on the Campus Martius during the late first century BC. Initially, Roman law forebade the construction of permanent theatres, seeing their influence as detrimental to Roman moral values, but following the construction of the Theatre of Pompey, such venues proliferated.

The exact location of Taurus’ amphitheatre is unknown, though Lauro describes it as being close to the Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, a basilica built in the fourth century to house relics of the crucifixion brought back by Helena, mother of Constantine. The ‘in Heirusaleme’ appended to the name of the church refers to the fact that its floor was filled with earth brought back from the Holy City.

The scaena of the theatre appears at one end, and the banked seating is separated from the ground level by a low fence. Despite the fact that the theatre was a temporary structure, and constructed in wood, in Lauro’s view at least the bottom of the three tiers of vaulting is of stone. The commentary at the bottom of the plate replicates the description of the theatre in Pliny Book 36, and goes on to discuss the first permanent theatre, that of Pompey, which was constructed just three years later.

Marcus Aemilius Scaurus was the son of the famous consul of 115 BC. Although not the talented politician and statesman his father had been, Scaurus still attained the praetorship in 56 BC, though was dogged by accusations of bribery and extortion while serving in the provinces, and eventually went into exile in 53 BC. In addition to being a collector of engraved gems and minerals, Scaurus Condition: Clean, crisp impression with full margins. is also mentioned by Pliny as the progenitor of a particularly opulent temporary theatre, which was [40759] built for a series of performances in 58 BC. £75 It is alleged by Pliny that Scaurus’ theatre comprised on 360 columns arranged over three levels, was lavishly decorated with over 3000 bronze statues, and had stage furniture constructed of carved marble.

Permanent structures for the holding of theatrical entertainments had been vehemently argued against by the Senate, ostensibly because of their supposedly corrupting influence on Roman morality, but likely due to concerns about their potential for inciting riot and demagoguery.

66. Theatrum Marci Scauri Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 146 x 230 mm, Plate 176 x 232 mm, Sheet 255 x 402 mm A fanciful depiction of the theatre set up by Aemilius Scaurus, Plate 103 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The plate depicts the theatre with a three-tiered columned facade, in shape resembling a stadium or hippodrome.

Just three years later though, the Roman general Pompey, related to Scaurus by marriage, succeeded in dedicating a permanent stone theatre on the Campus Martius, by claiming that the banks of seats were simply steps for his adjoining temple to Venus.

Condition: Clean, crisp impression with full margins.

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The baths were repaired in the fifth century AD, but were likely abandoned along with the other imperial baths following the destruction of the aqueducts by the Goths in the following century. Although extensive ruins of the baths could still be seen during Lauro’s youth, by the time this plate was published, they had been demolished for the construction of the Palazzo Rospigliosi, the palace of Cardinal Scipione Borghese.

Condition: Clean, crisp impression on full margins.

[40761] £75 67. Thermæ Constantini Imperatoris ad Templum S. Silvestri in monte Quirinali Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 144 x 232 mm, Plate 178 x 235 mm, Sheet 257 x 402 mm A depiction of the Baths of Constantine, Plate 85 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta.

The plate depicts the baths in a fairly generic fashion, with a central bathhouse surrounded by a large walled courtyard. The walls themselves alternate round tower-like structures with apsidal niches. The back wall seems to be deeper, with a covered portico of columns visible. Lauro’s notes to the plate describe the baths location on the Quirinal hill, with reference to the nearby church of San Silvestri al Quiranale. Lauro also notes the restoration work carried out by one Petronius Perpenna, the city prefect, following damage from fire and earthquake.

The Baths of Constantine were the last grand bathing complex to be built in the city of Rome. By the time of Constantine’s reign, land of the size needed for most bath-houses was hard to find, as the previous three centuries of imperial improvements had greatly enlarged the city. As a result, the Baths were unusual and asymmetrical, designed to fit the irregular space they occupied on the spine of the Quirinal Hill.

Like most imperial bath complexes, the Baths of Constantine were lavishly furnished with sculpture, including the famous bronze Terme Boxer.

68. Circus Neronis in Vaticano ubi Hodei Templum D.Petri Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 142 x 230 mm, Plate 178 x 235 mm, Sheet 257 x 402 mm A depiction of the Circus of Nero in the Vatican, Plate 97 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The plate depicts the circus in the standard form of a truncated oval. The walls are two tiers high, with columned arcades on the ground level. On the arena’s floor, groups of figures represent the various athletic and sporting contests the structure was used for. Two four-horse chariots race on the far side of the arena, while other figures either ride, or lead, horses. In the centre of the circus is the spina, the various parts of which are labelled.

A group of three metae at each end represent the turning points, the most likely spaces for dramatic chariot crashes and other mishaps. The spina also features a pair of shrines, to Neptune and Hercules, as well as an obelisk that is described as being ‘sacred to Sol.’ Lauro’s copious notes to the plate describe the history of the monument, with reference to classical sources such as Tacitus, Pliny, and Suetonius, as well as outlining the various depredations and cruelties of the emperor Nero.

The Circus of Nero was actually a refurbished and rededicated circus built by the emperor Caligula on land belonging to his mother, Agrippina the Elder.

It occupied an area of land that ran alongside the Via Cornelia, and was ornamented with an obelisk brought by Caligula from Alexandria, but which had originally been set up in Heliopolis. The obelisk remains to this day in the piazza of Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

By Lauro’s day, the remains of the Circus of Nero had been almost completely obliterated.

The structure had fallen into disuse during the second century AD, at which time the Vatican was predominantly used for burial monuments and tombs. Under Constantine, the remaining superstructure was incorporated in the building of Old Saint Peter’s Basilica. The position of the basilica was deliberate, as tradition held that it was in the Circus of Nero that the martyrs Peter and Paul had met their end. Lauro repeats Seutonius’ accounts of the persecution of Christians in the Circus, as well as the favourite motif of Nero playing his cithara while Rome burned.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Clean, crisp impression with full margins.

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69. Mons Ianiculus Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 144 x 230 mm, Plate 178 x 233 mm, Sheet 261 x 402 mm A depiction of the Janiculum Hill, Plate 25 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The plate depicts the heights of the hill, dominated by a circular shrine to Mammea. In the courtyard before the temple are twelve altars to Janus, the two-faced Roman god of transition, from whose name the Janiculum was said to have derived.

The shrine, circular in form, is probably meant to suggest Bramante’s tempietto, which was built in 1510 to mark one of the supposed sites of St Peter’s crucifixion. On the right of the plate is the higharched causeway of an aqueduct, probably the Aqua Traiana that today provides the waters of the Fontana dell’Acqua Paola, which was dedicated by Pope Paul V in 1612, the year of Lauro’s publication of this view. Lauro’s copious notes to the plate describe the history of the hill, with reference to classical sources including Cicero and Macrobius.

The Janiculum, despite being one of the highest mounts in the Tiber valley, is not traditionally counted amongst the ancient Seven Hills, owing to the fact that it and the Vatican lay outside the boundaries of the city, on the opposite side of the Tiber River.

Sacred to Janus, god of endings, beginnings, time, doors, and numerous other concepts of transition, the Janiculum’s mythic history is described in the Aeneid, as the site of the ruins of a city of Janus shown to Aeneas by Evander. Because of its height, the hill was of strategic importance, shown by the fact that it was occupied by Lars Porsena, king of the Etruscan city of Clusium, during his seige of Rome.

In the imperial period, the Janiculum was the site of a number of water mills, which were used to grind grain for the city. The Aurelian walls, built during the third century AD, were extended to enclose the Janiculum, probably to enclose these vital mills.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Clean, crisp impression with full margins.

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70. De Templo Iovis Capitolini Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 144 x 230 mm, Plate 178 x 234 mm, Sheet 260 x 402 mm A depiction of the Temple of Jupiter Best and Greatest on the Capitoline, Plate 29 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The plate depicts the temple in a manner that suggests the cruciform layout of a basilica cathedral, with the grand colonnaded entrance flanked by a number of wings stepped back from the central building. At the centre of the plan is a squat round tower with a shallow dome topped by a tempietto. Four large statues adorn the building’s roof.

Lauro’s depiction of the temple in such a fashion is surprising. Although the temple was no longer extant in Lauro’s day, everything but its foundations having been destroyed in the remodelling of the Capitoline by Michelangelo, there were numerous depictions of the building on Roman coinage. A number of Lauro’s other plates make reference to the evidence of ancient coinage, so presumably he would have at least been familiar enough with the building’s basic structure. Instead, perhaps this plate is a deliberate attempt to present the temple as the pre-Christian equivalent of a building like St Peters, as the religious heart of Rome’s pagan past. Lauro’s copious notes to the plate describe the history of the temple, with particular focus on the first of its four iterations, built during the ancient Regal period.

The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus was the most important of Rome’s ancient religious structures. Located on the Capitoline, it would have dominated the skyline of the city of Rome. The temple had a long history, and was rebuilt numerous times, usually due to destruction of the previous temple by fire. The first temple was, according to Roman tradition, vowed by Tarquinius Priscus and completed by his grandson and the last of Rome’s kings, Tarquinius Superbus, in 509 BC. The temple was Etruscan in style, and decorated extensively with terracotta, including a number of statues on its roof.

In 83 BC, having stood for over 400 years, it burned down, and was replaced by the dictator Sulla. It too was burnt, in the civil unrest of the Year of the Four Emperors in AD 69. The third temple was set up by Vespasian, but again burned down, this time in a fire that damaged much of the city in AD 80. The final iteration of the Temple was built by Vespasian’s second son, the emperor Domitian, in a particularly opulent style, including gilded roof tiles and lavish sculptural work. Unlike its predecessors, the fourth temple was not destroyed by fire, but rather succumbed to centuries of disuse following the closure of all pagan temples by decree of Theodosius in AD 392. Although the ruins remained largely intact throughout the Medieval period, the temple was eventually destroyed for the Renaissance remodelling of the Campidoglio.

Condition: Crisp impression with full margins.

Minor time toning and light foxing to sheet.

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The temple was dedicated to Venus as the mother of the Julian clan, a descent Caesar traced through Iulus, second son of Aeneas. The temple had supposedly been vowed by Caesar before the Battle of Pharsalus, where his forces successfully routed Pompey and the senatorial optimates. The temple became an important signal of the divine right of the Julian clan after Caesar’s assassination, with construction completed by his adoptive son and heir, Octavian, the future Augustus.

71. De Venere Genetrice et de Eius Templo in Foro Cæsaris ad hortos post Templum SS. Cosmi et Damiani Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 143 x 230 mm, Plate 178 x 234 mm, Sheet 260 x 402 mm

The temple was remodelled by Domitian in AD 80, after sustaining damage in the same fire that had destroyed much of the Capitoline. Two other restorations were undertaken by Trajan and Diocletian. Although nothing remains of Caesar’s original temple, three columns of the temple rebuilt

by Diocletian in AD 283 still survive to the present day.

Condition: Clean, crisp impression with full margins.

Minor foxing to right margin not affecting image.

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A depiction of the Temple of Venus Genetrix in the Forum of Caesar, Plate 35 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The plate depicts the temple in an unusual manner, perhaps conflating descriptions of the building itself with elements of the surrounding Forum. The apsidal niches on each side of the temple building are reminiscent of similar niches built into the outer walls of a number of early imperial fora. Classical descriptions of the Temple also suggest that the Temple facade had eight columns in its porch, rather than the six depicted by Lauro.

Lauro’s depiction of the barrel-shaped temple roof does seem to accord well with descriptions of the vaulted ceiling though. Beyond the precinct walls, a heavily wooded area can be seen, perhaps suggesting the nearby Argiletum, which still had wooded areas during the Late Republic. Lauro’s copious notes to the plate describe the history of the temple, with reference to the accounts of Pliny, Appian, and Caesar himself, as well as a general history of Venus and the Julian clan.

72. Templum Pacis apud Viam Sacram Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 130 x 231 mm, Plate 180 x 236 mm, Sheet 260 x 402 mm

The Temple of Venus Genetrix was built in the 40s BC by Julius Caesar, at the far end of a new Forum adjacent to the Forum Romanum.

A fanciful depiction of the Temple of Peace, also known as the Forum of Vespasian, Plate 37 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta.

The building, which was more properly a walled garden with adjoining galleries, is depicted here in the standard fashion of a Roman temple, with colonnaded facade and rectangular in form, though with the addition of a shallow apse to its side wall, and numerous sculptures on its roof, pediment, porch, and stepped platform.

Lauro’s copious notes to the plate describe the building with reference to the classical literature, particularly Suetonius and Josephus. The remaining notes deal mostly with a short history of the Judean Wars of Vespasian and Titus, as well as a description of the area in which the Templum Pacis was built.

The Templum Pacis, while in form resembling a public square like the nearby fora of other emperors, is usually described as a templum because it does not appear to have been used for any specific political function. It was built in AD 71 by the emperor Vespasian in an area abutting the Argiletum, alongside the other imperial fora. The building’s function seems to have been purely municipal, with gardens, fountains, and grassed areas populating its enclosed courtyard.

Construction of the building was paid for from the spoils of Vespasian’s wars in Judea, and many of the most significant treasures of this conquest were displayed in the collonades of the Templum Pacis.

The building’s gardens would have made it a popular location in an increasingly built-up Rome, and it was evidently in use up until its destruction in the Gothic sack of AD 410, owing to the fact that it was chosen to display the Severan era Forma Urbis, a colossal marble plan of the city of Rome.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Clean, crisp impression with full margins.

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73. Templum Bonæ Deæ in Monte Aventino ubi nunc Templum S. Mariæ in eo latere ubi respicit M. Testacium Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 142 x 230 mm, Plate 178 x 233 mm, Sheet 259 x 402 mm A depiction of the Temple of the Bona Dea, Plate 41 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta.

The temple is depicted in an unusual manner, as a circular structure with a four-columned porch, elevated on a high platform with a grand staircase.

The platform has high windows, but no doors, perhaps suggestive of a space for the goddess’s all-female rites, which were a cause for masculine speculation, both religious and bawdy, during the Late Republic. The temple is domed, with an opening, or oculus, similar to the Pantheon. The large courtyard surrounding the temple is walled, and beyond the walls the countryside beyond the Aventine can be seen.

Despite the prohibitions against males entering the goddess’ sanctuary, at least two of the four figures in Lauro’s scene appear to be male. Lauro’s notes, making use of the textual tradition of Ovid and Cicero, do not say much about the building itself, but rather provide a description of the so-called Bona Dea Scandal caused by the demagogue Clodius, as well as postulating the goddess’ connection to various other deities, including Diana, Lucina, Trivia, Argentea, and Luna.

The Bona Dea, or ‘Good Goddess,’ is one of the most enigmatic of Roman deities. Her date of her adoption into the religious life of the Romans is contested, with Cicero asserting that she was a chthonic deity whose worship was similtaneous with the city’s foundation, while others see her as an import, arriving at some point during the third century.

A goddess of fertility, motherhood, and chastity, her traditional cult centre was the Aventine Hill, where a shrine and temple was dedicated to her from at least as early as 123 BC. The goddess was sometimes interpreted, as she is in Lauro’s commentary, as the deified daughter of Faunus, the god of nature and the wild. By the Late Republic, the aspects of chastity prominent in her myth led to the involvement of the Vestal virgins in the observance of her rites. The most famous of these rites was initiated each year by the wife of Rome’s senior magistrate.

Although highly secretive, the rites of the Bona Dea have gained much attention from later historians because of the actions of the demagogue Publius Clodius, who, dressed as a woman, sneaked into the rites of 62 BC, supposedly with the intention of seducing Julius Caesar’s wife Pompeia.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Clean, crisp impression with full margins. Small chip to right edge of sheet, not affecting image or plate.

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74. De Marte Ultore et Illius Templo in Foro Augusti ad Aedem S. Martinæ Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving

Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 142 x 228 mm, Plate 178 x 235 mm, Sheet 262 x 402 mm A depiction of the Temple of Mars Ultor in the Forum of Augustus, Plate 46 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The temple is depicted as circular. Such a decision by Lauro is interesting, as, although the actual building was rectangular with an apse at the back housing the cult statue of the god, on Augustan coinage it is frequently shown as a colonnaded circular structure. Behind the temple itself, Lauro has depicted a two-storey basilica, perhaps suggesting one of the two colonnaded halls that ran along each side of the enclosed forum.

Lauro’s notes to the plate, drawing upon examples from the Augustan era poet Ovid, makes reference to the connection between Mars the Avenger and the Julian clan of Caesar and Augustus.

The Temple of Mars Ultor had been vowed by the young Octavian before the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, in which he, with the aid of Marc Antony and Lepidus, defeated Brutus, Cassius, and the so-called Liberatores, and thus avenged the murder of Julius Caesar. The temple was the most prominent part of a planned Forum of Augustus, standing against the back wall of the Forum and eventually flanked by a pair of triumphal arches and two basilicae.

The forum was lavishly ornamented with statuary celebrating the great men of Rome’s history, and linking Augustus and the Julian clan to Rome’s mythic past. Just as the Temple of Venus Genetrix in Caesar’s Forum had been intended to celebrate the descent of the Julian family from Venus, so too did the Forum of Augustus make reference to Julian descent from Mars, through Rhea Silva and thus Romulus. The structure also more closely linked Augustus to some of Rome’s most important military ceremonies. The Senate met at the Temple of Mars Ultor to discuss matters of war, while triumphing generals in the imperial period finished their procession at the Forum of Augustus rather than on the Capitoline.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Clean, crisp impression with full margins. Minor foxing to right margin of sheet, not affecting image or plate.

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Although the theatre was in continual use until late antiquity, the Curia had a very short life. It is primarily remembered as the venue of Caesar’s assassination in 44 BC, where, ironically, the Dictator was stabbed to death at the foot of a statue of Pompey. Following the assassination, Augustus had the Curia closed up and eventually demolished.

Dio states that it was later used as the site of a latrine.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Clean, crisp impression with full margins.

75. Magni Pompei Curia ad Theatrum Eiusdem Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 142 x 229 mm, Plate 177 x 232 mm, Sheet 260 x 402 mm A depiction of the Curia of Pompey, Plate 57 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The building, which unlike the adjoining theatre was only in use for a decade, is depicted as a grand, three-tiered structure, ornamented with balustrades, engaged columns, two squat barrel-roofed towers, and a pair of colossal statues. Lauro’s notes to the plate discuss Pompey’s military achievements across the Roman world, the proceeds from which he had been able to build the Curia as part of his much grander Temple complex to Venus, which included the Roman world’s first permanent theatre. Lauro’s comments derive mostly from the source tradition of Pliny and Caesar.

The Curia Pompeia was one of a number of late Republican meeting halls, designed to accommodate the Roman Senate and the Tribunal Assembly. It was built and dedicated in 55 BC by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, one of the late Republic’s greatest generals, and the leading enemy of Caesar during the Civil Wars. The Curia stood at one end of Pompey’s grand building project in the Campus Martius, opposite the Temple of Venus and its adjoining theatre. In many ways, this building project prefigured the imperial fora which would be built over the next century by various Roman emperors. In addition to the Curia, Pompey’s structure included a large walled pleasure garden, where his art collection was displayed, as well as the aforementioned Temple and Theatre.

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76. Basilica Portia Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 141 x 230 mm, Plate 178 x 234 mm, Sheet 260 x 402 mm A depiction of the Basilica Portia of Cato, Plate 60 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta.

The building is depicted in a fairly standard basilica form, as a narrow rectangular building of two tiers, the lower tier being double the height of the upper. The building has a shallow-vaulted roof, and openings at either end. The long sides of the building have large square windows. Lauro’s copious notes on the structure draw mainly from Pliny, and describe the political and military career of the famous statesman, Marcus Portius Cato the Elder.

Marcus Portius Cato (234-149 BC), usually known as Cato the Elder to distinguish him from his great grandson Cato Uticensis, was a leading statesman, soldier, and public figure during the first half of the second century BC. A strict moralist, Cato is best remembered for his famous maxim that ‘Carthage must be destroyed.’ He was the first author to write history in Latin, and a leading advocate for traditional Roman values at a time when many of the Roman elite were looking towards the Hellenistic world for models of cultural practice.

During his Censorship in 184 BC, he commissioned the building of Rome’s first basilica, the Basilica Portia, which, though now completely lost, was situated in the Roman Forum near the Senate House.

Roman basilicae took their design from Greek stoai, and indeed the word basilica is simply a latinized form of the name of Athens’ most famous stoa, the stoa basileios.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Clean, crisp impression with full margins. Minor foxing to right margin of sheet, not affecting image or plate.

[40770] £40

A depiction of a putative monument on the Aventine Hill for the hosting of the festival of the Armilustrium, Plate 67 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The building is depicted in the manner of a grand villa of three storeys, the third storey smaller than the other two and thus creating a wide balcony. The building is topped by a pair of circular, domed, towers, and the entire facade ornamented with engaged pilasters.

Lauro’s copious notes, drawing solely upon evidence from Varro, mainly discussed the festival of the Armilustrium. It seems most likely the the festival, following its procession up onto the Aventine, was held in a large open space rather than a dedicated structure as Lauro depicts it.

The Armilustrium was one of a number of Roman festivals dedicated to Mars, the Roman god of war.

The name of the festival comes quite literally from its purpose, to wash the weapons and armour of the Roman army in order to purify them at the end of the campaign season. The festival was traditionally held on the 19th of October.

The army gathered at the Circus Maximus, where they would be garlanded with flowers and other botanical symbols of victory, before marching to the accompanying of military trumpets up to the Aventine Hill. Here the weapons would be stored for the winter, being brought out again the following year at the start of the campaign season in March, the month of Mars.

Condition: Clean, crisp impression with full margins.

[40771] £40

77. Armilustrum in Monte Aventino Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 152 x 229 mm, Plate 179 x 233 mm, Sheet 258 x 402 mm

78. Domus P.S. Africani ad S. Georgium in Velabro Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 145 x 230 mm, Plate 17 x 234 mm, Sheet 260 x 402 mm A depiction of the house of Scipio Africanus in the Velabrum, Plate 112 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. The building is depicted in the manner of a grand villa of three storeys. The third storey is enclosed on three sides, but open at the front, with a squat balustrade enclosing a central courtyard. In the centre of this courtyard is a domed, circular structure of three tiers.

The villa is designed to suggest graceful elegance, with numerous columns and elaborate stone decorative surrounds on the doors and arched windows. Lauro’s notes to the plate suggest that the house was located in the Velabrum, adjacent to the ancient statue of Vertumnus, god of seasons and change, which stood on the Vicus Tuscus.

Lauro goes on to explain that the Villa was built over by Tiberius Gracchus in his construction of the Basilica Sempronia in 196 BC. The remainder of his commentary is devoted to Scipio Africanus’ military achievements in the Punic Wars, and the enmity and ingratitude of Scipio’s contemporaries.

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (236-183 BC) was a leading figure of the middle Republic and one of Rome’s greatest generals. He is chiefly remembered for defeat of Hannibal at Zama during the Second Punic War. Despite his achievements as a statesman and general, Scipio earned the contempt of many of his fellow senators, the most vociferous of which was Cato the Elder. After repeatedly being taken to court for alleged mismanagement, Scipio went into retirement at a villa in the coastal town of Liternum. Upon his death, he was buried there, having proclaimed that his ungrateful fatherland would never hold his bones.

History as a whole has been much kinder to Scipio than his contemporaries. Later Romans celebrated his accomplishments. Augustus made a pilgrimage to Scipio’s tomb, and Seneca, having stayed in the Villa at Liternum, composed an epistle ‘On Scipio’s Villa.’

Like his adopted grandson, Scipio Aemilianus, Scipio Africanus was a leading Philhellene, with some crediting him with the importation of the Hellenistic fashion for grand villa retreats. Scipio’s house in Rome however, did not long survive him, being knocked down to make space for a basilica built by his son-in-law Tiberius Sepronius Gracchus.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Clean, crisp impression with full margins.

[40772] £40

79. Domus M.T. Ciceronis Domenico de’ Rossi after Giacomo Lauro Copper engraving Cura, Sumptibus, ac Typis Dominici de Rubeis, Io: Iacobi hæredis ad Templum Sæ. Mariæ de Pace.

Romæ, Anno MDCXCIX cum Privilo. Summi Pontis. et Lica. Super. [1699] Image 145 x 231 mm, Plate 178 x 234 mm, Sheet 259 x 402 mm A depiction of the house of Cicero, Plate 115 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta.

The building is depicted in the manner of a grand baroque villa. The central structure is flanked by a pair of wings, each topped by a balustrated terrace.

Another terrace dominates the second level of the central section of the building. The villa is designed to suggest grand opulence, with elaborately carved stone surrounds on all of the buildings windows and doors, while sculptures adorn the buildings roof line and the niches in its walls. Lauro’s notes to the plate make reference to accounts of the house in Gellius and Plutarch, as well as the comments of the sixteenth century scholar and humanist Andrea Fulvio. The remainder of the commentary is dominated by discussion of Cicero’s life, particularly in reference to his long-running feud with the demagogue Publius Clodius.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-44 BC) was a statesman, orator, author, philosopher, and one of the leading figures of the late Republic. A novus homo from Arpinum, Cicero made his name in the law-courts, and would come to be praised as the greatest of

Rome’s orators. His works became the new standard for the study of Latin, from the Roman period to the present day. Although not a military man, Cicero was a key player in the Civil Wars, championing the republic against the Caesarians. He was killed in 43 BC, the year after Caesar’s assassination, at the behest of Mark Antony, in revenge for his withering criticisms of the latter in a series of speeches called the Philippics, after a similar set of speeches given by the great Athenian orator Demosthenes against Philip II of Macedon.

Cicero’s house in Rome occupied one of the most desirable locations in the city, on a ridge of the Palatine Hill overlooking the Roman Forum. After Cicero was driven out of Rome and into exile following his decision to execute Roman citizens without trial during the Catilinarian conspiracy, his house was demolished in an act of petty revenge by the incendiary popularist Publius Clodius Pulcher.

Clodius had been provoked by Cicero’s snide comments following the Bona Dea scandal in 62 BC. To add insult to injury, Clodius had the land on which Cicero’s villa had stood consecrated to Libertas, the personification of liberty, and placed a shrine on the site. Such an action was intended to guarantee that Cicero could not regain the land, even if his exile was revoked at a later date.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark. Clean, crisp impression with full margins.

[40773] £50

A set of three plans of the temple complex and sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia at the town of Praeneste, modern Palestrina, Plates 53 to 55 from Rossi’s Romanae Magnitudinis Monumenta. These plates were commissioned by Rossi to accompany a series of plates after Giacomo Lauro of ancient Roman monuments originally published almost a century earlier.

The three plates depict the terraced hill sanctuary from three different perspectives. The first shows the temple complex from above, with a floorplan of the temple, courtyards, and arcades.

The second is a view of the sanctuary taken from the foot of the mountain spur. The concave upper levels are extensively decorated, lined with columns and sculptures, while the walls of the citadel can be seen encircling the slopes approaching the very top of the hill. The path of an aqueduct is also depicted, running from the top of the hill down to the temple.

The final plate shows a birds-eye view of the sanctuary from the side, illustrating the way in which the temple is built into the spur of the hill, with the terraces stepping down in front of it to the ground level of the valley.

Excavation of the earliest habitation layers of Praeneste indicate a mix of influences, including Etruscan and Phoenician. The city enters the historical record due to its involvement in the Latin League, which it left in 499 BC to ally with Rome.

After the Gallic sack of Rome in 309 BC, Praeneste abandoned its former ally, but was eventually conquered by the celebrated Roman general Cincinnatus in the Latin War.

80. Ichnographia Templi Fortunæ Prænestinæ / Templum Fortunæ Prænestinæ / Sciographia Templi Fortunæ Prænestinæ Pietro Santi Bartoli after Pietro Berrettini da Cortona Copper engraving Petrus Sancti Bartolus incidit. Ab equite Petro Berrettino Cortonensi delineata. Ex officina Domenici de Rubeis ad Templum Sæ. Mæ. de Pace [1699] Plates approx. 184 x 238 mm each, Sheets 258 x 402 mm each

The city suffered badly in the Social Wars of the early first century, and its entire male population was killed by the army of Sulla for harbouring the son of Gaius Marius in 82 BC. By the Late Republic, its fortunes had been restored and it became a popular summer retreat, its cool breezes being lauded by the poet Horace.

The city is most famous for its colossal sanctuary to Fortuna Primigenia, the largest religious sanctuary in Italy, which occupied an entire hillside of a spur of the Appenine mountains. Fortuna was worshipped here as mother of the gods of the Capitoline Triad. In addition, the sanctuary was also home to an oracle.

By Lauro’s day, despite extensive damage to its superstructure, most of the sanctuary’s terracing had survived, being incorporated into the contemporary town of Palestrina, property of the papal Barberini family, who constructed the large concave villa over the original site of the temple at the sanctuary’s peak.

Pietro Berrettini da Cortona (1st November 1596 16th May 1669) was an Italian painter and architect.

Along with Bernini and Borromini, da Cortona is celebrated as one of the fathers of the Baroque style.

His best known works include the construction of the Church of Santi Luca e Martina in the Roman Forum, and the frescoes of the Palazzo Barberini in Rome and of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence.

Condition: Encircled fleur-de-lis watermark on all pages. Clean, crisp impression with full margins.

[40774] £50

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