Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives

The artwork

At the foot of the sheet, in the middle vignette, a sarcophagus carved with rosettes lies among broken lids: for centuries this tomb was thought to belong to the kings of Judah, but one of the coffins found there bore the name of a queen. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, with twenty-five numbered places and the Tombs of the Kings.
• In a study or beside history books it reads like a story.
• A gift for anyone who has been to Jerusalem, on pilgrimage or travelling.

The vignette is titled “Tombeaux des Rois”. In 1863 the French archaeologist Félicien de Saulcy excavated the tomb and found five sarcophagi; one was inscribed in Aramaic “Tsadan the queen”, and that sarcophagus is now in the Louvre. The tomb is mostly attributed to Helena, queen of Adiabene in northern Mesopotamia, who converted to Judaism in the first century and moved to Jerusalem. According to the historian Josephus, during a famine she had grain brought from Alexandria and dried figs from Cyprus to feed the city.

According to the engraved text, the large view was drawn on the Mount of Olives, at the spot where Jesus wept over the city. A key numbers twenty-five places, and number 14 is a great domed mosque that it calls “Temple de Salomon”, described with a lead roof and a gilded crescent. This is plate 23 of the fifth volume of Henri Abraham Châtelain's Atlas Historique, engraved on copper and printed in Amsterdam in 1719; beside the sarcophagi are the tombs of Zechariah and Absalom and two views of Mount Lebanon. The original reproduced here belongs to the David Rumsey Map Collection.

In a study or next to the history books, it is a gift for anyone who has been to Jerusalem, as a pilgrim or a traveller. And in the vignette at the foot of the sheet, the queen's tomb still bears the name of the kings.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 40 x 60 cm (15.7 x 23.6 in)
With frame: 42 x 62 cm (16.5 x 24.4 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass