PART OF THE PORTICO OF EDFOU [An Excellent View of the Temple's Famous Northern Portico; Being an Original Hand-Coloured Lithograph From] THE HOLY LAND, SYRIA, IDUMEA, ARABIA, EGYPT AND NUBIA

From the Standard Folio First Edition, limited to 500 sets only. A single original hand-coloured lithographic plate drawn on stone by Louis Haghe after David Roberts' paintings done on location in 1838. Printed on a single folio sheet 24" x 17", the captioned image, is 20" x 13", now presented in cream mounting boards 30" x 24" glazed behind clear mylar. Beautifully hand-coloured to the highest standards of the time. An example in excellent condition, clean, fresh, beautifully preserved.

Edizione: from one of the most desirable of all travel and colourplate books. this is an especially attractive plate showing the northern portico of one of the best preserved temples in egypt at a time when most of the portico was still buried beneath shifting desert sand. three winged sun disc are visible above the opening, the lower of which is brightly painted. the temple, dedicated to the falcon god horus, was built in the ptolemaic period between 237 and 57 bc. a group of brightly dressed visitors, appearing tiny between the massive columns lend an excellent sense of scale to this fine image.<br> we have a good number of impressive images from the standard folio edition of this classic work available for purchase. as well as many views of egypt there are also views available of tyre, nubia, petra, sinai, the jordan, sidon and baalbec. please inquire for further details.<br> in the course of two and a half months in 1838, traveling some 800 miles south from cairo, roberts recorded the monumental temple sites along the nile in more than a hundred sketches. as the first british artist to sketch the monuments of ancient egypt, set on "plains so vast.that, until you come near them, you have no idea of their magnificence," roberts was well aware of the stir his drawings would create in london. according to john ruskin, writing in praeterita, roberts's drawings "were the first studies ever made conscientiously by an english painter, not to exhibit his own skill, but to give true portraiture of scenes of historical and religious interest."