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    300 years
    Return to "Binyon" is linked to these Works 76 items
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    Baths of Diocletian

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    Baths of Diocletian
    Baths of Diocletian
    Baths of Diocletian
    The Trustees of the British Museum
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Baths of Diocletian
    Date
    c.1752-54 (undated)
    Medium
    Black chalk and stump, heightened with white, on grey-green paper
    Dimensions
    Metric: 250 x 394 mm
    Imperial: 10 x 15 1/2 in.
    Collection
    The British Museum. To license image, click here
    Accession Number
    1881,0212.23
    Wilson Online Reference
    D106
    Description
    A broad open space, flanked by buildings on either side including the ruins of the Baths, with another building at the far end. In the right foreground a woman and boy talk to a beggar leaning against a post. Further away there are two groups of two figures each near fragments of a fallen column. Other figures can be seen near a wall on the right. Light from the left casts a shadow over most of the foreground.
    Provenance
    Donated by John Deffett Francis, February 1881
    Signature/inscription
    Unsigned; no inscription
    Verso inscriptions
    Verso invisible - laid down
    Subject
    The Baths of Diocletian were public baths in Rome, named after emperor Diocletian and built from 298 to 306 AD. They were the largest and most impressive of the imperial baths, originally commissioned by Maximian on his return to Rome in the autumn of 298. The Baths are located on high ground at the north-east summit of the Viminal, the smallest of the seven hills of Rome. They remained in use until the Ostrogothic siege of Rome in 537, when the water supply was destroyed. The basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri was later constructed in the ruins.
    Related Drawings
    D305 Baths of Dioclesian, The Courtauld Gallery, London
    Related Prints
    E34 James Gandon after Wilson, Twelve Etchings of Views in Italy - Baths of Dioclesian, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven
    E34A James Gandon after Wilson, Twelve Etchings of Views in Italy - Baths of Dioclesian, Royal Academy of Arts, London
    Critical commentary
    A drawing of the Baths from a different angle is in the Courtauld Gallery, London (D305)
    Bibliography
    Binyon 7; Ford 1951, p. 60 under no. 58
    Condition/Conservation
    Small stain upper right

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • Baths of Dioclesian, The Courtauld Gallery, London

    Prints

    • James Gandon (1742-1823) after Wilson, Twelve Etchings of Views in Italy - Baths of Dioclesian, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven
    • James Gandon (1742-1823) after Wilson, Twelve Etchings of Views in Italy - Baths of Dioclesian, Royal Academy of Arts, London

    Biographies

    • John Deffett Francis (1815-1901)

    Documents

    • Laurence Binyon, Catalogue of Drawings by British Artists and Artists of Foreign Origin working in Great Britain preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum
    • Brinsley Ford, The Drawings of Richard Wilson
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