View of Constantinople

Luigi Mayer (c.1755 - 1803)

Pencil and watercolour / gouache ?

c.1780-1800

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View of Constantinople
  • About the work
    Location
    Country: Other
    City: looted or destroyed

    Destroyed or looted in riots, Baghdad, Iraq, 1958

  • About the artist
    Luigi Mayer was described as 'Roman by birth'. However, little is known of his early life. His family may have come from Switzerland, before later settling in Rome. He is thought to have been a pupil of the Accademia di San Luca and an assistant to etcher and architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Mayer probably left Rome for Naples and Sicily in the early 1770s, when he reputedly worked for the King of Naples. By 1778 he was employed by Prince Biscari, a Sicilian collector and antiquarian based in Catania. It may have been at Biscari's residence that Mayer was introduced to future patron Sir Robert Ainslie, British Ambassador at Constantinople. Mayer later established himself in London, where he published several series of aquatints.
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  • Details
    Artist
    Luigi Mayer (c.1755 - 1803)
    Title
    View of Constantinople
    Date
    c.1780-1800
    Medium
    Pencil and watercolour / gouache ?
    Dimensions
    height: cm, width: cm
    GAC number
    1369