- Museum number
- 2012,5019.1.48
- Description
-
Drawing from an album of drawings of antiquities, formerly belonging to Edward Dodwell; bronze patera and the Guilford Puteal
Pen and ink with brown wash on two sheets of paper stuck down onto a third sheet.Volume tooled in gold on spine "ORIGINAL DRAWINGS OF GREEK ANTIQUITIES. / DODWELL. / DEPT. OF G. & R. ANTIQUITIES."
- Production date
- 1805-1819 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 235 millimetres (album cover)
-
Thickness: 41 millimetres (album cover)
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Width: 200 millimetres (album cover)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The album (2012,0519.1.1-86) consists of 86 sheets of drawings of antiquities, several of which were found or purchased by Edward Dodwell. It is bound in brown leather and tooled in gold on spine "ORIGINAL DRAWINGS OF GREEK ANTIQUITIES. / DODWELL. / DEPT. OF G. & R. ANTIQUITIES.". Inside is the bookplate of Edward Dodwell, and inscribed in graphite: "80 pp. containing over 200 drawings of Greek antiquities by E. Dodwell & others" and in another hand on the following page: "Orig. Drawings by Dodwell for his work on Greek Vases".
See: Edward Dodwell, 'A Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece, during the years 1801, 1805, and 1806', (London, 1819): 'Near the port of Zea on the northern side of the Piraeus, are the remains of walls and two round towers...These towers were separated by a gate which probably constituted the entrance to the great cemeter, or Nekropolis of the Piraeus, which extends a considerable way towards Mount Aigaleos, in a northern direction. At the northern extremity of the burying-ground is a low rocky hill covered with sepulchres, which are concealed by the soil and weeds; and where some broken sarcophagi are found...The Nekropolis is a continued rock which is nearly flat, and covered with small bushes, and stunted grass. The sepulchres are not visible, as they are all of the υπογαια kind, or under ground. The τραπεζα, or cover, of each tomb, consists of a large block of stone, about a foot in thickness...The Piraean tombs are easily opened; and although they are so much concealed by weeds and bushes as to be invisible, their quantity facilitates their discovery. The development is performed by first breaking the trapeza, or cover, with a large hammer, and then overturning it with a stong pole, as a lever. The tombs are cut in the rock, and their common depth is four or five feet. They are filled with a fine loose earth, which has been a subsequent introduction, rather than an original deposit. Some of these sepulchres in a state of superior preservation were opened in my presence; and they contained earth not more than a foot in depth. The first day I empolyed ten men, who, in the course of nine hours, opened thirty in a day.The common calculation is, that two men can open four in a day...' Vol. I, p.431-432
The Guilford Puteal is engraved for the title page in Edward Dodwell, 'Alcuni Bassirilievi della Grecia' (Rome 1812), and mentioned in Edward Dodwell, 'A Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece, during the years 1801, 1805, and 1806', (London, 1819),Vol. 2, p.200-204: '...When I was at Corinth, I saw the marble peristomion, or mouth, of an ancient well [note 6: 'It is at present in London, in the collection of the Earl of Guildford [sic]. When I saw it at Corinth, it was still used as the mouth of a well; but it had evidently been removed from its original position, as it was turned the wrong side upwards, and, consequently, very difficult to draw; and, from the friction occasioned by those who drew water from it, the figures were much injured, and most of the heads destroyed. It belonged to the noble and ancient family of Notara, who are mentioned, by the Byzantine writers, as a powerful house, when the Palaeologi were emperors of the East. These mouths of wells, which were enriched with sculpture, were denominated putealia sigillata by the Romans. See Cicero ad Attic., b. 1. epist. 8'] , on the exterior of which were sculptured ten figures of divinities; and which, from the subject, had probably belonged to the temple of Apollo, being one of the sacred wells, which were used in sacrificial lustrations...The Corinthian well, which is of the Aeginitic, or archaic style, seems to allude to the reconciliation of Apollo and Hercules, who had been at variance on account of the tripod, which the latter had seized from Delphi...The figures are in very low relief, and partake of the dry rigidity of the earliest sculpture: their motions are stiff and unbending, and the folds of their vests formal and monotonous: there is, however, a certain nobleness of character, which impresses the beholder...'.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1962
- Acquisition notes
- Officer's Reports 30 March 1962
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 2012,5019.1.48