Lot Essay
The present watercolours are probably based on other drawings and engravings, such as the published works of James 'Athenian' Stuart (1713-1788) and Nicholas Revett (1720-1804). Despite the inscription 'VIEWS IN ATHENS', on the cover of the album (made up in 1837, ten years after the dates on the watercolours) one of the sites, Paestum with its three 6th and 5th century B.C. Doric temples, is in Italy, some sixty miles south of Naples. The other buildings are all at Athens: the Parthenon, built under Pericles 447-438 B.C., the Propylaea of 437-432 B.C., the Temple of Zeus (Roman Jupiter) Olympius, begun under Pisistrathus in the 6th century B.C., but not completed until the reign of the Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century A.D., and the Theseum, more correctly the Temple of Hephaestus and Athena, begun circa 449 B.C.
The drawings do not seem to have been executed on the spot, since one of the two drawings of the Theseum is dated 1826, and the other four of 1827 include that of Paestum. The drawings are unusual in that they do not take account of the actual condition and settings of the buildings in the 1820s, as may be seen by comparing them with near-contemporary views of the same buildings by artists such as Hugh William Williams in 1819 (illustrated in F.M. Tsigakou, The Rediscovery of Greece, London, 1981, pls. 28 and XVI), Ippolito Caffi in 1843 (ibid, pls. 30-32) and Thomas Hartley Cromek in 1844 (ibid, pl. 37). Moreover the drawing of the Propylaea shows it in an idealized state, with its irregularities and lack of completion considerably tidied up, with no signs of the Temple of Nike or the Frankish Tower which would normally be seen in the background.
The drawings do however reflect the growing interest in Greek arhitecture, particularly that of Athens, at the time of the Greek War of Independence, which had broken out at Patras in 1821. The Acropolis was besieged by the Turks in 1826, falling to them the following year and not being finally liberated until 1833 (another reason why these drawings are hardly likely to have been executed on the spot). A provisional seat for the new government was set up by Capodistrias at Aegina in 1826 and moved to Nauplia in 1828. The new interest in the classical Greek sites was reflected by the publication of William Cole's Remains of Ancient Monuments in Greece in 1835, two years before the date on this album.
It is difficult to distinguish between the two Bucklers, father and son, who both signed themselves 'J. Buckler'. Neither is known to have visited Greece, nor to have published Greek subjects.
The drawings do not seem to have been executed on the spot, since one of the two drawings of the Theseum is dated 1826, and the other four of 1827 include that of Paestum. The drawings are unusual in that they do not take account of the actual condition and settings of the buildings in the 1820s, as may be seen by comparing them with near-contemporary views of the same buildings by artists such as Hugh William Williams in 1819 (illustrated in F.M. Tsigakou, The Rediscovery of Greece, London, 1981, pls. 28 and XVI), Ippolito Caffi in 1843 (ibid, pls. 30-32) and Thomas Hartley Cromek in 1844 (ibid, pl. 37). Moreover the drawing of the Propylaea shows it in an idealized state, with its irregularities and lack of completion considerably tidied up, with no signs of the Temple of Nike or the Frankish Tower which would normally be seen in the background.
The drawings do however reflect the growing interest in Greek arhitecture, particularly that of Athens, at the time of the Greek War of Independence, which had broken out at Patras in 1821. The Acropolis was besieged by the Turks in 1826, falling to them the following year and not being finally liberated until 1833 (another reason why these drawings are hardly likely to have been executed on the spot). A provisional seat for the new government was set up by Capodistrias at Aegina in 1826 and moved to Nauplia in 1828. The new interest in the classical Greek sites was reflected by the publication of William Cole's Remains of Ancient Monuments in Greece in 1835, two years before the date on this album.
It is difficult to distinguish between the two Bucklers, father and son, who both signed themselves 'J. Buckler'. Neither is known to have visited Greece, nor to have published Greek subjects.