The Mausoleum of Mausolus and the Apotheosis of Homer, Lithograph, 1842

An original antique lithograph, partially hand colored, with pale washes of blue in the skies and green in the grass while the monuments are left in gray. The plate comes from the Galleria Universale di Tutti i Popoli del Mondo (Venice, Giuseppe Antonelli, 1842). The upper image shows a reconstruction of a great tomb: a high stepped base, a story with relief panels and statues flanking a door, a colonnade, and a stepped pyramid roof crowned by a four horse chariot group. The lower image shows part of a carved relief set against rough stone: a bearded figure holding a long scepter reclines at the top with an eagle beside him, a veiled woman stands at right, and three figures below look up toward a tablet carved with a Greek inscription.

The top margin is lettered Tom IV at upper left, "GRECIA" at center and Tav 145 at upper right. The captions read "Monumento di Mausolo" (Monument of Mausolus) and "Apoteosi di Omero" (Apotheosis of Homer).

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was built in the fourth century BC for Mausolus, ruler of Caria, and was counted among the Seven Wonders of the ancient world; its name gave us the word mausoleum. The Apotheosis of Homer is a Hellenistic marble relief signed by the sculptor Archelaos of Priene, and the tablet in the plate carries a version of that signature in Greek letters.

The restrained gray and blue tones suit a classical interior, a study or a collection on ancient architecture.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.