Extensive view of Cape Sounion, Greece, with the Temple of Poseidon

Dominating the skyline at Cape Sounion like the Acropolis in Athens, the Temple of Poseidon, on the southern-most tip of Attica, was known as the Temple of Minerva Sunios in the 19th Century. In 1839 Christopher Wordsworth wrote that 'This temple, elevated on high above the Aegaean Sea, at the extremity of this promontory, stood like the Portico or Vestibule of Attica. Constructed of white marble, placed on this noble site, and visible at a great distance from the sea, it reminded the stranger who approached it in his vessel from the south, by the fair proportions of its architecture, and by the decorations of sculpture and of painting with which it was adorned, that he was coming to a land illustrious for its skill in the most graceful Arts' (F.-M. Tsigakou, The Rediscovery of Greece, London, 1981, p. 152).

For further information on Williams see lot 181.