DAVID ROBERTS (1796-1864)
The Acropolis of Athens (156m -512ft)
Greece
In The Acroplis, from the lower end of the Valley, litograph prints, Private collection
The hill
The Acropolis of Athens (156m ) is located on a rocky limestone plateau, the flat top of which measures around 270 meters from east to west and, in its natural state 85 meters from north to south, widened up to almost 150 meters by the works of the fifth century BC. AD, approximately 23,000 m22.
The term "acropolis" (ἀκρόπολις / akrópolis) comes from the adjective ἄκρος (ákros "high, high") and the noun πόλις (pólis, "city, town"), thus meaning "upper town".
It is accessible by a steep slope on the west side which leads to the Propylaea. However, the plateau can be reached on its north face by two faults dug by erosion. The east and south faces themselves are not inaccessible. It was even from the east side, deemed too steep and therefore unsupervised, that the Persian forces entered the fortress in 480 BC. J.-C.
The sanctuary of the Acropolis of Athens is organized around the statue of the tutelary deity of the city. This statue of Athena Polias is only known by a few texts. It must have been a xoanon, a kind of olive wood beam, almost aniconic. Athena is most often represented standing.
Every year, the statue was washed, its peplos changed and its adornment (jewelry and accessories) cleaned. Her jewels were earrings, a border on the neck and five necklaces. His accessories, all in gold, were an owl, an aegis, a Gorgonion and a phiale. She had no weapons: she was therefore not the warrior goddess of the most famous statues afterwards (Athena Parthenos and Athena Promachos of Phidias). These jewels and accessories could date from the "restructuring" of the primitive statue by Endoios. He would have made the beam a korea by fixing an arm to it (and a hand holding the phiale)
The artist
David Roberts was a Scottish painter. He is especially known for The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia, a prolific series of detailed lithograph prints of Egypt and the Near East that he produced from sketches he made during long tours of the region (1838–1840). These and his large oil paintings of similar subjects made him a prominent Orientalist painter. He was elected as a Royal Academician in 1841.
J. M. W. Turner persuaded Roberts to abandon scene painting and devote himself to becoming a full-time artist. Roberts set sail for Egypt on 31 August 1838, a few years after Owen Jones. His intent was to produce drawings that he could later use as the basis for the paintings and lithographs to sell to the public. Egypt was much in vogue at this time, and travellers, collectors and lovers of antiquities were keen to buy works inspired by the East or depicting the great monuments of ancient Egypt.
Roberts made a long tour in Egypt, Nubia, the Sinai, the Holy Land, Jordan and Lebanon. Throughout, he produced a vast collection of drawings and watercolour sketches.
Muhammad Ali Pasha received Roberts in Alexandria on 16 May 1839, shortly before his return to the UK. He later reproduced this scene, apparently from memory, in Volume 3 of Egypt & Nubia.
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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
