VIEW OF THE DIOKLETIAN´S PALACE IN SPLIT

Below the veduta depicting the city of Split, observed from the southwest, is the title View of the town of Spalatro from the South West. The veduta depicts the ruined part of the remains of the Diocletian’s Palace, with the bell tower of St. Domnius in the background and a row of sailing ships in the city port. On the coast and in the boats, the author provided a very romanticized portrayal of the locals in their daily chores. In the foreground are the pastoral motifs of the fountain and ancient ruins. The veduta was published in Robert Adam’s Ruins of the Palace of the Emporor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia, as Plate IV. Cassas also later worked on the vedute of Split, as evidenced in the Felbar Collection by his veduta of the Peristyle (inv. no. 472) from 1802 and the depiction of the Temple of Jupiter (inv. no. 578). When his book Voyage pittoresque was published in Paris, he and his collaborator Joseph Lavallee published copper-plate versions of watercolour drawings that the French painter personally collected on his eastern Adriatic travels during 1782. His aim was to compile a manual for the study of ancient architectural and monumental heritage in the area.