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William
Walcot R.E., Hon.R.I.B.A.
(Odessa
1874 – 1943 Ditchling, Sussex)
The Frigidarium of the Baths of Caracalla
The Frigidarium of the Baths of Caracalla
EH-L 58.
594
x 465 mm.
Etching with drypoint and aquatint, 1919.
Signed in pencil. Edition of 51. Printed
in brown-black ink on stout wove paper.
Time-stained on the reverse of the sheet,
not affecting the recto.
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Additional
Information about the Print
Exhibited
at the Royal Academy 1919.
Salaman
remarks that it is not Shelley’s “mountainous ruins” which
inspired Walcot but the ‘vision’ of the elegance of the buildings
in which the cultured Roman enjoyed the physical luxury of the great Thermae.
The great Roman bath houses are the quintessential
embodiment of Roman civilisation, where gossip
was exchanged and poets, athletes, philosphers,
men-about-town met on the common ground of citizenship.
The
Frigidarium of the huge Baths of Caracalla dates
from AD 211-216. Walcot shows the west angle
of the frigidarium (cold bath) with its ‘Olympic
size’ swimming pool. |
