Minneapolis Institute of Art

Sebaste, Ancient Samaria

David Roberts; Lithographer: Louis Haghe; Publisher: Sir Francis Graham Moon

Date

1844

Medium

Tinted and hand-colored lithograph

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

In 1838, Scottish painter David Roberts toured the Near East, making him one of the first British artists to gain first-hand knowledge of the region. He went from Egypt to the Sinai and Petra, arriving in Jerusalem at Easter 1839. Remaining there for a few weeks, he then continued north to Lebanon and departed from Beirut in May. From the outset of his journey, Roberts planned to publish a great set of Near-Eastern views, which eventually appeared as The Holy Land, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia. He worked with lithographer Louis Haghe (1806-1885) to develop a six-volume magnum opus, containing 247 hand-colored lithographs based on his on-the-spot drawings. To fund the project, he exhibited his original drawings in London and used the exhibition catalogue as a prospectus to recruit subscribers. Four hundred signed up, and the series was published in parts from 1842 to 1849.This was one of the 19th century's most elaborate topographical publications illustrated with hand-colored lithographs. It was also one of the last, for photography soon became the preferred medium for views of far off lands. Nonetheless, Roberts's and Haghe's prints remained central to understanding of Egypt and the Holy Land in Victorian Britain. When Roberts arrived in Sebaste (Sebastia), a village in what is now the Palestinian West Bank, he was dazzled by the brilliant light on the stone ruins. In his journal, he went on to say, If, desolate as it is, the ruins of this city could thus strike the eye, what must its effect have been, when its sides and summit were covered with the temples and palaces of Herod. Indeed, the village Roberts saw had once been a great city. Founded in the 9th century BCE, it had been called Samaria and was the capital of the Kingdom of Israel. Following successive conquests it was an important administrative center under the Neo-Assyrian, Chaldean, and Persian empires. After its destruction during the wars of Alexander the Great, the Jewish king Herod the Great (c. 72 BCE – c. 4 BCE) rebuilt the city, renaming it Sebastia, a Greek version of the name of the Roman emperor Augustus. The ruins of Herod's palace appear to the left, about half-way up the image. Roberts noted with excitement the length of the colonade, which had been measured at 3000 feet. Great Britain, Europe

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