Name of Object:

View of Constantinople

Location:

Athens, Greece

Holding Institution:

Benaki Museum

 About Benaki Museum, Athens

Date of Object:

1851

Author:

Constantinos P. Kaldis

Inventory Number:

30411

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Engraving on paper

Description:

Both this print and the View of Smyrna are based on earlier Western ones, which have been assimilated into the distinctive Athonite topographical style. They are exceptions to the corpus of Athonite prints, since they are of secular subjects. The printmaker was, indeed, active outside Athos, where he executed nonreligious commissions. The subjects relate to the tradition of topographical murals depicting important commercial and cultural centers of the day that decorated the mansions of wealthy merchants by the mid-eighteenth century. Kaldis aimed to supply a wider public with inexpensive works of a decorative nature. The activity of merchants from Lesbos at Smyrna, Constantinople, and the Black Sea on the one hand justified the choice of subject and, on the other, provided the appropriate network in which the multiple printed works could circulate. In order to attract the largest possible clientele, the view is coloured and annotated with explanatory comments in Greek and Turkish.

Citation of this web page:

Papastratos 1990, vol. 2, 578-79, figs. 617-18; Delivorrias, Fotopoulos 1997, 508-9, figs. 900-901 "View of Constantinople" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;AWE;gr;24;en

Prepared by: Papastratos 1990, vol. 2, 578-79, figs. 617-18; Delivorrias, Fotopoulos 1997, 508-9, figs. 900-901

MWNF Working Number: GR 024