Cave of Pan, near Sunium, Greece

Edward Dodwell|Simone Pomardi

1805 · Pen and brown ink, brush and brown and black wash over graphite · Drawings and Prints

In 1801 the Irish archeologist Edward Dodwell hired the Italian painter Simone Pomardi to accompany him to Greece. Their purpose was, "to explore [the country's] antiquities, to compare its past with its present state, and to leave nothing unnoticed, which, to the classical reader, can be an object of interest, or a source of delight." This drawing of a cave at Sunium records geological features and ancient sculptures, the latter including a male figure holding a hammer near the back wall, and a headless statue below the entrance. Turbaned Turks, representatives of the rulers of Greece at this period, acts as guards. Dodwell and Pomardi worked individually and together to create important visual records of major sites, and this image was etched to illustrate Dodswell's "A Classical and topographical tour through Greece during the years 1801, 1805 and 1806," published in London in 1819.

Artist

Edward Dodwell|Simone Pomardi

Date

1805

Medium

Pen and brown ink, brush and brown and black wash over graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 2014