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Model of a monument at Mylasa,'restored', c.1800-1834
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François Fouquet (1787 - 1870), maker
Model of a monument at Mylasa,'restored', c.1800-1834
Plaster of Paris
Height: 32.5cm
Width: 22cm
Depth: 22cm
Width: 22cm
Depth: 22cm
Museum number: MR15
Not on display
Curatorial note
This unusual structure, also known as the Gümüşkesen, was a Roman tomb built about the 1st century AD at Mylasa (or Mylassa) in south-western Turkey (today the modern city of Milas). The tomb, with a distinctive stepped, pyramidal roof seems to replicate, on a smaller scale, the famous mausoleum of the Satrap Mausolous at Halicarnassus – one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world (see the model of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus MR37). Mylasa is located not too far from ancient Halicarnassus (now Bodrum). Fouquet has replicated the distinctive square corner piers and oval-section columns that support the heavy stepped roof. He has also replicated the distinctive octagonal-based corbelled interior of the roof with its decorative lintels. Unusually, this model has been inscribed, in French, in pencil, on the first step of the podium, with a scale of 1 to 6 feet and with the name of the monument: Tombeau à Milasa.
Provenance
Sir John Soane purchased the twenty models by François Fouquet in 1834 from the architect Edward Cresy (1792-1858) who, from 1829 to 1835, worked in Paris. Soane paid Cresy the substantial sum of £100 (£10,136.78 in today’s money). It is likely that Cresy purchased the models directly from Fouquet et Fils.
Exhibition history
Soane and Death, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 26 February - 12 May 1996
Wonders of the Ancient World: François Fouquet's Model Masterpieces, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 15 July - 22 November 2011
Wonders of the Ancient World: François Fouquet's Model Masterpieces, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 15 July - 22 November 2011
Associated items
19/6/5, Soane Lecture drawing of the same site
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