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

This watercolor was engraved and published as "A View of the Site of Utica" in Nathan Davis' Carthage and Her Remains (page 414). The engraving omits the seated figures and inverts the two main figures and the horse, adding a running figure with a musket. Davis writes: "At the exact time specified by Lord Lyons, HM steamer "Harpy" arrived. She was commanded by Lieut. Porcher, who was instructed by the admiral not only to convey me to the sites of the various ancient cities above named, but to render me every assistance in his power – instructions which this officer was ready to carry out, and did carry out to the best of his abilities." Porcher and his crew (praised by Davis as "sturdy marines") assisted with the removal and transportation of a number of mosaics and sculpture from the excavation site at Utica, which according to Davis was once on the water but now "seven or eight miles' distance from the sea". Utica aided Rome in the destruction of Carthage. Davis describes the area as already "ransacked of building materials," and yet "marble and granite shaft, capitals, and cornices of every order, size and dimension, which lie about here in all directions, are certainly a great attraction for antiquarian research" (409).

"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).