Watercolour, Interior of the Theatre in the Region of Cacamo, about 1780-1790, by Luigi Mayer

Watercolour drawing

Purchased with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, Shell International and the Friends of the V&A

According to Rodney Searight: - `Bt Sotheby's, [24] May 1978 [(361)], £80(+ 10%)'.

The theatre is that of Myra (now Demre, south-west Turkey), not of Patara, further west. Caccamo (or Cachamo) appears to refer to the region between and including Myra and Patara, in which there were several ancient sites. Cf. SD.214.
Reproduced: A version in Society of Dilettanti, Antiquities of Ionia, Part 2, 1797, Pl.LVII, engraving titled Theatre at Patara (see SP.224).
See: B. Llewellyn, `Changing Views of the Middle East Watercolours from the Searight Collection', Antique Dealer & Collectors Guide, September 1983, pp.50-1.
Cf. other versions: Inside view of an Ancient Theatre believed to have belonged to the Town of Patera, now district of Cachamo in Caramania, Eyre & Hobhouse, 1983, and aquatint in Mayer, Ottoman Empire, 1803, Pl.5, titled An Ancient Theatre At Cacamo, 1803 (see SP.378).

This view of the theatre at Myra, produced for an English patron, contrasts with Cassas's romanticised interpretation of the scene (See SD.214), which caters for a more elaborate, French taste. The prominent figure in the foreground, seen from the back, is nevertheless a deliberate artifice, introduced by Mayer both to draw the viewer's eye into the picture and to emphasize the oriental context of the subject. Versions of the view were reproduced in the Society of Dilettanti's Antiquities of lonia (Part 2, 1797, Plate LVII), and in Mayor's Views in the Ottoman Empire (1803, PI.5).
Caccamo was the Italian name for the area of coast and islands in South-west Turkey between and including Myra and Patara, in which there were several ancient ruins.

SD.657