Collections : [Yale University -Yale Center for British Art]

"HONG KONG" is inscribed in the lower left corner.

The Marquis de Piro was member of an aristocratic Maltese family whose history is bound up with the Knights of St. John. Casal Lia is a small village roughly in the center of the island of Malta.

A traveler in 1838 described the town of Millieha as about "an hour's ride form St. Paul's Bay". The Church of Millieha, much visited by devout Maltese, was partly cut out of solid rock. Several objects dedicated to the Virgin, to whom the church is dedicated, were housed inside (Badger 286).

Mounted with Porcher's diagram of the "hunters mosaic", this watercolor was the basis for an engraving of the same name in Nathan Davis' Carthage and Her Remains (page 405). Davis describes the site: "In the direction of the cape we have the remains of a theatre, which must have been gorgeously decorated, judging from the numerous fragments of rich marbles which are here found" (408). The archaeologist forms the theory that the theater was practical for the representation of naval battles, as water could be dispensed from the nearby aqueduct into the amphitheater, then emptied into the harbor below. He concludes: "A double object was thus attained: the people were gratified by an attractive exhibition, and the public reservoirs were regularly cleansed" (407).

A set of caves described as "Calyspo's Grotto" were so called because they were thought to be described by Homer: "large was the grot in which the nymph be found" (fifth book) (Badger 288). In 1838, a British traveler writes: "Any admirer of natural scenery will be delighted with the prospect which stretches before the sight from the summit of this hill. The green spot beneath, washed at its base by the Bay of Mellieha, the islands of Gozo and Comino in the distance, and the rugged heights around, form a coup d'oeil not everywhere to be enjoyed in the island of Malta" (Badger 289).

The northernmost city in Africa, Bizerta is 40 miles north of Tunis, and 18 miles north of Utica. The date of this watercolor indicates that it was sketched after the completion of Nathan Davis's expedition, during one of Porcher's three return trips to Tunis in 1860.