Antique Fragments at Limissol

The Austro-Italian painter Luigi Mayer was commissioned by his patron Sir Robert Ainslie, British ambassador to the Porte, to travel to the Ottoman dominions and illustrate the beauty of those lands. Ainslie wanted to publish a book with these views. In 1803, a volume appeared published by Robert Bowyer with the title ‘Views in the Ottoman Empire, chiefly in Caramania, a part of asia hitherto unexplored’. The volume contained two views of Cyprus: ‘Antique fragments at Limisso’ and ‘A colossal vase near Limisso in Cyprus’. Two more watercolours remained unpublished in the hands of Robert Ainslie. This engraving portrays an interior courtyard of a three storey house with a gallery supported by pillars with Corinthian capitals. The amalgamation of architectural styles, in conjunction with the figures of Turks, could reflect the artist’s opinion of Turkish archaeological illiteracy: It is accentuated by the way two Turkish figures are curiously examining the seat made out of stone in the ancient Greek style of a thronos. No such building existed in the small town of Limassol nor is there any reference to it in any other document or illustration. Furthermore, it is not included in the catalogue of Mayer’s drawings within the manuscript in the Bodleian Library (MS 434). The painting was wrongly titled and contrary to popular belief it does not represent Cyprus. The manuscript 434 vol. 2 clearly states that numbers 65, 66 and 68 are views of Cyprus while number 67 is listed as a view of the ruins at Zalamis at Agrigentum in Sicily.