Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
May 1778
Primary Source Reference:
Du Simitière Memorandum Books, Library of Congress, fol. 29v
Notes:
What Du Simitière knew as the Lanthorn (Lantern) of Demosthenese is now known as the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, near the Acropolis of Athens. It was illustrated in volume 1 of James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, The antiquities of Athens, measured and delineated, 4 vols. (London, 1762-1816). The frieze, which depicts scenes from the play which won Lysicrates a trophy, shows Dionysus, the Greek god of the stage, defeating pirates by turning them into dolphins. The frieze includes several naked seated figures; one of them (detail of plate XI) is pictured here.
The artist and donor, John André (1751-1780), was a major in the British Army and head of its Secret Service in America during the American Revolutionary War. He was hanged as a spy by the Continental Army for assisting Benedict Arnold's attempted surrender of the fort at West Point, New York, to the British.
