STADEMANN, August Ferdinand. Panorama von Athen. An Ort und Stelle aufgenommen und herausgegeben von Ferdinand Stademann… Mannheim 1841.

August Ferdinand Stademann (1791-1873) was born in Berlin and from 1810 onwards lived in Bavaria. In 1832 he came to Greece as administrative advisor to the Regency. He returned to Munich around 1836 and distinguished himself as counsellor to the government. He died aged 82. In the spirit of his age, Stademann drew a panorama of Athens on ten leaves, completed by six vignettes, a map and explanatory notes, which was printed in Munich. Among the subscribers to the edition were a number of well-known personalities of Bavarian Athens, including King Otto (Othon). Stademann’s publication, influenced by similar works, was commented on by his contemporaries.

Stademann drew his panorama in the summer of 1835. As shown in one of his vignettes, he sat on the hill of the Nymphs, nowadays of the Observatory, during “a most unsufferable heat wave”. The lithographs of this panorama display the whole basin of Attica, in a 360 degrees view, from the River Ilissus, Lycabettus, Vrilissia, mounts Pentelicon and Parnes, Aegaleo, Corydallos, Piraeus, all the way to Salamis, Aegina and as far as the Argolid, as well as the Pnyx, with the Acropolis and Mount Hymettus in the background.

The edition includes drawings of the same subjects on leaves of onion paper; special spots on the landscape, monuments or buildings are marked with numbers that refer to annotations in the detailed explanatory texts accompanying the lithographs on separate leaves. The vignettes depict the royal palaces, neighbourhoods in Athens and Kaisariani, the Ilissus area where later the Stadium was rebuilt, etc.

The dry summer Attic landscape is illuminated from the North, without any additional graphic detail. The Elaionas is the only feature represented with plasticity. Despite the somewhat monotonous style, this is a faithful as well as rare representation of the city of Athens during the first period of King Otto’s reign.

Written by Ioli Vingopoulou