Piet de Jong: The Propylaia

The most recent number (no. 224) of Current Archaeology carries an illustrated letter about a previously unknown watercolour by Piet de Jong showing the Propylaia. The picture came from a cottage in Norfolk (England) that had once been occupied by the writer John Middleton Murry (1889-1957), friend of Piet de Jong.

Piet de Jong: Architect and Archaeological Illustrator

Piet de Jong (1887-1967) is described in this new collection of his work as “one of the great archaeological illustrators of the 20th century” (Papadopoulos 2007: xix). Although the focus is on the American work in the Athenian agora, de Jong started his association with the British School at Athens on Alan J.B. Wace's excavations at Mycenae. He then worked with Sir Arthur Evans on Crete, Arthur M. Woodward at Sparta, and Humfry G.G. Payne at Perachora (see the caricatures in Hood 1998). De Jong also designed extensions to the BSA Hostel and Library.

• Review in Bryn Mawr Classical Review (David W.J. Gill)
• Greek edition
  

Reference
Hood, R. 1998. Faces of archaeology in Greece: caricatures by Piet de Jong. Oxford: Leopard's Head Press. [Worldcat]
Papadopoulos, J. K. Editor. 2007. The art of antiquity: Piet de Jong and the Athenian Agora. Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens. [Worldcat]

Melos: the Hall of the Mystae

In April 1896 Robert Carr Bosanquet described to his sister Caroline the excavations at 'the Hall of the Mystae' on Melos.

A few days later we found a statue, headless alas, lying on its back on the mosaic pavement ...It represents a hierophant ... of Dionysos, probably, and was set up by the Mystae or Initiates. The mosaic is an unusually large one, some 40 feet in length, and 10 feet wide, and on the whole well preserved. Yesterday we finished clearing away the stone dykes and soil that overlay the upper end and were overwhelmed by the beauty of the upper compartment: it has a vine in each corner whose branches spread over the field: among them are birds of gorgeous plumage, pheasants and peacocks, at one side a deer or goat lying down. The colouring is very rich and the design good. It is probably the best mosaic that has been discovered in Greece. I am anxious to arrange for its permanent preservation and am wiring to Cecil Smith, whom I suppose to be in Athens, to that effect. He has left me in charge for over 3 weeks and I have only heard from him once, so I am anxiously awaiting his coming.

The drawing was made by Charles R.R. Clark, the excavation's architect.

Bibliography
Bosanquet, R. C. 1898. "Excavations of the British School at Melos. The Hall of the Mystae." Journal of Hellenic Studies 18: 60-80, pls. i-iii.

Melos: the churches

In April 1896 Robert Carr Bosanquet, who had been left in charge of the excavations while Cecil Harcourt-Smith was in Athens, was joined on Melos by two contemporaries from Trinity College, Cambridge: Henry Martineau Fletcher (1870-1953) and Sydney Decimus Kitson (1871-1937). Fletcher and Kitson had both matriculated at Trinity in 1889 (the year above Bosanquet) and were on an extended trip through Italy and Greece. While on Melos they made a study of the Byzantine churches. Neither was admitted as a student of the BSA.

Fletcher had been educated at Marlborough, and had been awarded a first in Part 1 of the Cambridge Classical Tripos (1892). He was articled to Mervyn Macartney. He later worked as an architect (FRIBA 1908) and served as Vice-President (1929-31) Honorary Secretary (1934-39) of RIBA. He helped to design the War Memorial at St John's College, Cambridge.

Kitson had been educated at Charterhouse. Kitson's father, James, was a locomotive engineer; his half-brother was the First Baron Airedale. Kitson was articled to E.J. May in London. He practised as an architect in Leeds as the senior partner of Kitson, Parish, Ledgard and Pyman. Among his designs was the Leeds School of Art. Kitson was an authority of John Sell Cotman and the Norwich School of painting. His collection of Cotman drawings and watercolours were bequeathed to RIBA; a former BSA student, Adolph Paul Oppé, prepared the catalogue.

Reference
Fletcher, H. M., and S. D. Kitson. 1895/6. "The churches of Melos." Annual of the British School at Athens 2: 155-68.

Edwin Freshfield and Sidney Barnsley

Sidney Howard Barnsley (1865-1926) was admitted to the BSA in 1887/88 as an architectural student of the Royal Academy. He worked on Byzantine architecture in Salonica and Mount Athos as part of a project directed by Dr Edwin Freshfield, a trustee of the BSA.

Freshfield lived at Lower Kingswood in Surrey and commissioned Barnsley to design a new church, 'The Wisdom of God', in a Byzantine style.

BSA and the British School at Rome

Students at the BSA often combined part of the year at the British School at Rome.

Cambridge students:

• Alan John Bayard Wace (BSR 1903/04)
• Mary Hamilton (BSR 1905)
• Henry Julius Wetenhall Tillyard (BSR 1905)
• Gisela Marie Augusta Richter (BSR 1906)
• John Percival Droop (BSR 1907)
• Arthur Charles Sheepshanks (BSR 1907)
• Wynfrid Laurence Henry Duckworth (BSA 1909)
• Sidney Wilson Grose (BSR 1910)
• Agnes Ethel Conway (BSR 1912)
• Mary N.L. Taylor (BSR 1913, 1914; Gilchrist Studentship 1914); married to Harold C. Bradshaw, Rome Scholar

Oxford students:

• Guy Dickins (BSR 1905)
• William Moir Calder (BSR 1907)
• Thomas Eric Peet (BSR 1909, Pelham Student)
• Norman Whatley (BSR 1910)
• Arnold Jospeh Toynbee (BSR 1911)

Other students:

• William Alexander Kirkwood (BSR 1904)
• Duncan Mackenzie
  

Architects:

• Frank George Orr (BSR 1904)
• W. Harvey (BSR 1908)
• Lionel Bailey Budden (1909)
• Harry Herbert Jewell (BSR 1910)
• George Esslemont Gordon Leith (BSR 1911, Herbert Baker Studentship)

Several former students of the BSA also held positions at the BSR:

• Henry Stuart-Jones was the second director Director of the BSR (1903-05)
• Alan John Bayard Wace was librarian of the BSR (1905/06).
• Augustus Moore Daniel (associate student of the BSA), was Assistant Director of the BSR (1906/07); he was married to Margery Katharine Welsh a former student of the BSA
  
• Eugenie Sellers-Strong was Assistant Director of the BSR (1909-25)
• William Loring was honorary secretary of the BSR (as well as the BSA)
• John Ff. Baker Penoyre, secretary to the BSR (1904-12) (as well as the BSA)
  

Scotland and the BSA

Apart from Oxford and Cambridge, one of the main groups admitted to the BSA in the period up to 1914 consisted of students from Scotland. A key influence was (Sir) William Ramsay (1851-1939), a graduate of the university of Aberdeen, who continued his studies at St John’s College, Oxford. Ramsay had travelled widely in Asia Minor and was elected a research fellow at Exeter College in 1882. He was subsequently appointed to the Lincoln and Merton Chair of Classical Archaeology at Oxford in 1885, before moving back to Aberdeen in 1886 where he was Regius professor of humanity.

At least three of Ramsay’s students completed their studies at Aberdeen and then continued their studies in England.

• John G.C. Anderson, son of the Revd Alexander Anderson, from Morayshire. On completing his studies in Aberdeen Anderson went to Christ Church as an exhibitioner (1891-96) aged 20, and then out to the BSA as Craven University Fellow. He was involved with the publication of epigraphic material from the School’s excavation at Kynosarges, and then travelled in Anatolia making a special study of Phrygia. One of Anderson’s achievements was the plotting of a map of Asia Minor.
• William Moir Calder, the son of a farmer. He went to Robert Gordon College, Aberdeen (1894-99), then Aberdeen University, where he obtained a 1st class in Classics (1903). Like Anderson he was admitted to Christ Church as an Exhibitioner (1903), aged 22. On completing his studies in 1907, he was admitted first to the British School at Rome under Thomas Ashby. Like Anderson he had an expertise in epigraphy.
• Margaret Masson Hardie, the daughter of a farmer from Chapelton, Drumblade near Elgin. She had been educated at Elgin Academy before moving to Aberdeen University where she obtained a 1st class in classics. She then continued her studies at Newnham College, obtaining a first in classics. She was admitted to the BSA in 1911/12 and assisted with Ramsay's epigraphic survey of the sanctuary of Men Askaenos at the Roman colony of Pisidian Antioch.

This pattern of continuing studies in England is found for students from Glasgow and Dundee. Two of the BSA students had previously studied at Glasgow.

• James George Frazer had studied at Larchfield Academy, Helensburgh, and then at the University of Glasgow (1869-74). Among the influences there was George Gilbert Ramsay, professor of humanity (1863-1906), who had been educated at Trinity College, Oxford. At the age of 20 Frazer went to Trinity College, Cambridge (1874-78) where he obtained a 1st class in the Classical Tripos (1878). Frazer was admitted to the BSA as a mature student to work on Pausanias.
• One of G.G. Ramsay’s other pupils was Campbell Cowan Edgar, from Tongland, Kirkubrightshire. He was educated at Ayr Academy, then Glasgow University (1887-91). For part of this time Edgar studied under (Sir) Richard Claverhouse Jebb (1875-89) and Gilbert Murray (1889-99), consecutive holders of the chair of Greek at Glasgow. After Glasgow, Edgar became Bible Clerk at Oriel College (1891), at the age of 20, continuing his study of classics (1891-95). The award of a Craven Fellowship allowed him to study in Athens where he gained archaeological experience at Kynosarges and on Melos. His contemporary at Oxford and in Athens was Anderson. Edgar worked with David Hogarth at Naukratis and shortly afterwards joined the catalogue commission in Cairo.

Other students from Scotland included:

• Hilda Lorimer, the daughter of Revd Robert Lorimer, was educated at Dundee High School at the University College, Dundee (1889-93) where she obtained a 1st class in classics. At the age of 20 she obtained a scholarship to continue her studies at Girton College, Cambridge, obtaining a first class in 1896. She was admitted to the School as Pfeiffer Travelling Student (1901-02) and was able to work with W. Dörpfeld of the German School.
• Duncan Mackenzie, who had studied in Edinburgh (1882-90), chose to study on continental Europe. He completed a doctorial thesis on Lycian sculpture from the University of Vienna (1895). His experience of continental archaeological training soon put him to good use in the BSA excavations on Melos, and then with Evans at Knossos.

Few students from Scotland were admitted directly from Scotland. During the session 1894/95 two theology students from Aberdeen went sent out:

• John Garrow Duncan, from Aberdeen, by the Church of Scotland.
• A.F. Findlay, by the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

Both worked specifically at modern Greek. Duncan became interest in Egyptian antiquities and worked with Petrie in Egypt and Palestine. Findlay worked specifically on the account of Paul at Athens in the Acts of the Apostles.

In 1895 there was a concerted move to improve the financial situation of the BSA. The appeal to the treasury was supported by academics from several universities in Scotland: St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. This seems to have encouraged the admission of a number of students direct from Scotland.

• Archibald Paterson, an Edinburgh graduate, who went to Athens 1895/96, to work on Christian antiquities.
• W.W. Reid was a student of Ramsay in Aberdeen. Reid was admitted to the BSA on a Blackie Travelling Studentship (1896-97). He travelled through Asia Minor and Cyprus. He was later ordained a minister in the Church of Scotland.
• William Alexander Curtis, who had studied theology at Edinburgh, went to Athens at the age of 21 (1897-98), and was later to become a colleague of Ramsay at Aberdeen as professor of systematic theology (1903-15) before returning to Edinburgh.
• Mary Hamilton, a graduate of the University of St Andrews, was admitted to the BSA as a holder of a Research Fellowship under the Carnegie Trust (1905-06, 1906-07). She worked at the interface of theology and the classical world, in particular the custom of incubation.
• John Arnott Hamilton, an ordained minister and Edinburgh graduate, was admitted to the BSA at a mature student (1913-14). He had a long-standing interest in church architecture, and went out to Athens as a holder of the Blackie Scholarship to study Byzantine architecture completing a work on the church at Kaisariani.

Two former students of architecture at the Glasgow School of Art were admitted:

• David Theodore Fyfe (1899/1900), who became architect to the excavations at Knossos.
  
• Frank G. Orr (1905/06).