drawing;
print study;
album
- Museum number
- 2013,5005.1.54
- Description
-
Study of a relief over a door near the bazaar on Scio (Chios) showing the death of Semele (?)
Pen and ink and red-brown wash on a sheet of paper stuck down on to a second sheet, with a gold paper border
- Production date
- 1764-1765
- Dimensions
-
Height: 165 millimetres (second sheet)
-
Height: 65 millimetres
-
Width: 247 millimetres (second sheet)
-
Width: 163 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Engraved in 'Ionian Antiquities', Vol I, 1769, p.iv (tail-piece).
This drawing was originally from an album of drawings by William Pars made during the Dilettanti Society's expedition to Greece and Asia Minor 1764-6 under the direction of Richard Chandler. The majority of them were engraved for 'Antiquities of Athens' and many others for 'Ionian Antiquities'. The album is bound in brown leather and tooled in gold on spine "Architectural Drawings & Views in Greece & Asia Minor 1764-67 / Vol. I / Presented to the British Museum by the Dilettanti Society". This volume, together with volume II (2013,5005.2), was given to the British Museum by the Society of Dilettanti in June 1800. It originally contained 84 drawings by Pars, 26 of which were removed from the album and transferred to the Department of Prints and Drawings. 17 of these were published by A. Wilton. 58 drawings remain in the Department of Greece and Rome and were removed from the album in 2013.
See:
Richard Chandler, 'Travels in Greece, or an Account of a Tour Made at the Expense of the Society Of Dillettanti', (1776), p.66
‘We saw no stadium, theatre, or odeum; but so illustrious a city, with a marble quarry near it, could not be destitute of those necessary structures, and perhaps some traces might be discovered about the hill on which the citadel stood. A few bass-reliefs and marbles are fixed in the walls, and over the gateways of the houses. We found by the seaside, near the town, three stones with inscriptions, which had been brought for ballast from the continent of Asia. The Chiote, our attendant, was vociferous in his inquiries, but to little purpose. We were more than once desired to look at a Genoese coat of arms for a piece of ancient sculpture; and a date in modern Greek for an old inscription.’
See also:
'Ionian Antiquities', published by the Society of Dilettanti, Vol. 1 (1769) and Vol. II (1797):
'The tail-piece is taken from a Bass Relief over a Door near the Bazar at Scio. The Subject seems to be the Death of Semele.'
Richard Chandler, 'Travels in Asia Minor 1764-1765', edited and abridged by Edith Clay, with an appreciation of William Pars by Andrew Wilton, (1971)
Bruce Redford, 'Dilettanti: the antic and the antique in eighteenth-century England', (2008)
Jason M. Kelly, 'The Society of Dilettanti: archaeology and identity in the British enlightenment', (2009)
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1800 (June)
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 2013,5005.1.54