Arthur Abbott (British, 1804-1843), Caius Cestius, Rome The Monument of Caius Cestius, Rome

Arthur Abbott (British, 1804-1843), Caius Cestius, Rome The Monument of Caius Cestius, Rome inscribed with title and dated 'Roma 19.th Jan.y' (lower right) watercolour 27 x 19.2cm (10 5/8 x 7 9/16in). Footnotes: Arthur Abbott travelled extensively through Greece, Italy, Portugal and Malta. An album of sketches of Madeira by Abbott was sold at Sotheby's (4 December 2008, lot 187, £25,000), were dated to 1842-3. The pyramid was built as a tomb for Caius Cestius, an affluent politician and member of the religious corporation of the Septemviri Epulonum. Cestius requested in his will that his heirs erect a pyramid-shaped funeral monument within 330 days of his death, otherwise they would lose their inheritance. The pyramid was built during the reign of the emperor Augustus, probably between 18 B.C. and 12 B.C. and stands 120 feet high. The unusually sharply-pointed form of the pyramid may suggest that Caius Cestius served in the Roman campaign in Nubia in 23 BC where there were pyramids of similar form. Although there is no certainty of this, what we do know is that at the time of the tomb's construction in Rome there was a fashion for things Egyptian, which may account for the pyramid form. When the Aurelian walls were built between 271 and 275 AD, the pyramid was incorporated into them as we see it today. Situated close to the Protestant Cemetery, the Tomb of Caius Cestius was on the list of key sights for those on the Grand Tour. It was influential in introducing 18th and 19th Century architects to the pyramid form and was the model for a number of similar constructions elsewhere in Europe. The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley described it as 'one keen pyramid with wedge sublime' in Adonaïs, his elegy for John Keats of 1821; after his own death the following year, he himself was buried in the Protestant Cemetery within sight of the tomb. Thomas Hardy was to visit the site much later in the 19th Century and it inspired him to write a poem entitled At the Pyramid of Cestius near the graves of Shelley and Keats. The folding stool and artist's portfolio visible on the left in the present watercolour suggest that it was a popular subject for sketching; or they may indeed be Abbott's own. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing