A view of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis, Athens, seen from the West

The end of the 18th Century saw a surge of interest in Greece, caused by Napoleon's occupation of Rome in 1796 which brought a sudden end to the European Grand Tour to Italy. Among the travellers visiting Greece at this time were Edward Dodwell (ca. 1777-1832), an Irish archaeologist and his drauftsman, Simone Pomardi. Their stay from 1805-1806 is recorded in a large number of drawings, and this monumental sheet must have been made during that period. It shows in great detail the temple of Erechtheion, from the West, with additional sketches in pencil of the residence of the Turkish commander of the Acropolis (to the right) and another showing Mount Pentelikon (the source of so-called Pentelic marble, which was used for the construction of buildings in ancient Athens) situated northeast of Athens (to the left).

The majority of Pomardi's drawings made at the time, about 800, remained in the possession of Dodwell's descendants until they were acquired in 2002 for the Packard Humanities Institute in Los Altos, California (see In Search of Greece. Travel drawings of Edward Dodwell and Simone Pomardi, 1805-1806, Los Altos, 2013). Many of Dodwell's and Pomardi's drawings were engraved in Dodwell's accounts of his travels and an engraving which is close in composition to the present one is published in Dodwell's, Viaggio nella Grecia fatto da Simone Pomardi negli anni 1804, 1805, e 1806, Rome, 1820, between pp. 124 and 125).