LUIGI MAYER (1755-1803)

A VIEW OF AN ANCIENT THEATRE BELIEVED TO HAVE BELONGED TO THE TOWN OF PATARA, IN THE DISTRICT OF CACCAMO CARAMANIA
With a handwritten label attached to the backboard identifying the subject
Gouache & watercolour
54 x 71 cm
 
PROVENANCE:
Sir Robert Ainslie, Bt. (1730-1812), London & Bath;
Eyre & Hobhouse (by 1983);
From whom acquired by The Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, London
 
 
LITERATURE:
Engraved with some alterations, for Mayer's Views in the Ottoman empire, chiefly in Caramania, a part of Asia Minor hitherto unexplored; with some curious selections from the islands of Rhodes and Cyprus, and the celebrated cities of Corinth, Carthage, and Tripoli; from the original drawings in the possession of Sir R. Ainslie, taken during his embassy to Constantinople, by Luigi Mayer; with historical observations and incidental illustrations of the manners and customs of the natives of the country, London, R. Bowyer (1803) [see fig. I above]
 
EXHIBITED:
New York, Eyre & Hobhouse and Morton, Morris & Co., A grand tour in the Ottoman Empire : watercolours by Luigi Mayer (circa 1755-1803), 9th - 16th December 1983
 
 
 
 
This view shows the ancient Temple at Myra, a scene which Cassas had depicted some years earlier in 1782, and which Mayer painted from several different viewpoints (with one example in the V&A, acc. no. SD657). Myra is now in Demre, south-west Turkey, not of Patara, further west. Caccamo (or Cachamo) appears to refer to the region between and including Myra and Patara, in which there were several ancient sites.