“The Column of Arcadius”, 1574, in The Freshfield Album (folio 13)

“The Column of Arcadius”, 1574, in The Freshfield Album (folio 13)

“The Freshfield Album”, produced in 1574 by an anonymous Western artist visiting Constantinople, consists of 21 watercolor drawings of the monuments of the city. Presented to Trinity College in Cambridge as a gift by Edwin Hanson Freshfield in 1935, the full album is available for the first time ever as a part of the Wren Digital Library. The drawings in this album feature columns, interior views of the Hagia Sophia, panoramic views of the Hippodrome, Sultan Süleyman’s mosque and tomb as well as two images of rhinoceros. The nine column illustrations have folded sheets attached to extend them, the notable detail suggesting a possibility of use as copperplate engravings. The three depictions of the Column of Arcadius feature the cracks which appeared in the column and the metal bands that secured it, allowing for a visual representation of the monument before it collapsed after an earthquake in the early eighteenth century.

Wren Digital Library

Trinity College, Cambridge