Title
Disegno delle Barche che sono scolpite sopra della Colonna Traiana.
Creator
Fontana, Carlo, 1634-1714, artist.
Publication details
[1694]
Physical details
1 drawing : ink and wash ; sheet 26.2 x 18.1 cm
Description
Rowboat with wooden cabin, barrels piled up on the deck and oar hanging from the stern; annotated at bottom right in brown ink and in a different hand from the title: 'nautica Cfontana'.
Place
Civitavecchia (Italy)
Additional information
Bound in one of the three volumes of drawings by Carlo Fontana formerly in the collection of Cardinal Albani, acquired by James Adam for George III in 1762 and later transferred to his Geographical Collections. The drawings are preceded by a blank page annotated: 'Drawn Sketches of Civita Vecchia, its ancient Buildings & Neighbouring Country by Fontana 1694'. According to Allan Braham and Hellmut Hager, 'the drawings were probably intended for publication as illustrations in a book which Fontana contemplated writing on the subject of primitive boats ('La Nautica'). This book was never printed, but Fontana appended an analysis of such boats to the short unillustrated book he published in 1710 on Porto d'Anzio, Antio e sue Antichita_'. In the second chapter of the Parte Terza, he referred to the difference of opinions among antiquaries concerning the uses of boats like this one depicted in Trajan's Column, which Fontana believed were only intended for the transportation of goods (p. 38). Related drawings are kept at Windsor and listed in the inventory of Cardinal Pamphili (see Braham, A., and Hager, H., Carlo Fontana: The Drawings at Windsor Castle, London, 1977, p. 132).
Shelfmark
118.e.14.