Not currently on display at the V&A

Sigiria- The Fortified Rock: Rock Cave, formerly enclosed with brick walls. The Cave is about 30 feet long, 20 feet high, and 20 feet in depth. The walls and ceiling have been plastered in chunam and brilliantly painted.

Photograph
1870s (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This naturally occurring rock cave forms part of Lion Rock, on which there are the ruins of a palace fortress. The cave may have been used by Buddhist monks as a monastery from the 5th century BC.

Joseph Lawton (died 1872), a British commercial photographer, was active in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) between 1866 and 1872. Though he was initially employed by the firm HC Bryde, by the mid 1860s he had established his own studio in Kandy. Lawton was commissioned by the Archaeological Committee to photograph the main archaeological sites in Sri Lanka. He created a unique series of aesthetically powerful images of Anuradhapura, Mihintale, Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya.

Official photographic surveys conducted by Lawton and others documented the architecture and facilitated antiquarian scholarship. However, as a commercial photographer, Lawton made sure that his photographs were not merely documentary. His images were taken to appeal to tourists and overseas buyers seeking picturesque views of ancient ruins overgrown with creepers and gnarled trees.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Sigiria- The Fortified Rock: Rock Cave, formerly enclosed with brick walls. The Cave is about 30 feet long, 20 feet high, and 20 feet in depth. The walls and ceiling have been plastered in chunam and brilliantly painted. (manufacturer's title)
  • Rock cave: part of Lion Rock near the ruins of the Royal Palace at Sigiriya. (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Albumen print
Brief description
Photograph of the Rock cave, part of Lion Rock at Sigiriya, Sri Lanka, by Joseph Lawton, albumen print, 1870-1.
Physical description
Two large natural rock formations leaning together with grass in the foreground and trees in the background. The space between the two rocks is filled with soil and broken rocks. The overhang of the rock on the left forms a cave-like space where a male figure stands with right hand on hip.
Dimensions
  • Photographic print width: 185mm
  • Photographic print height: 266mm
  • Mount width: 261mm
  • Mount height: 328mm
Marks and inscriptions
LAWTON (Written on negative and appears at the bottom of the print.)
Object history
This photograph was one of a set purchased by the museum from Lawton and Co. in 1882. See Photograph Register 81259-86096, Modern Volume, 13.
The register entry is dated to 24.4.82, and the cost is noted as £16.43.4

The photograph was initially part of the photographic collection held in the National Art Library. The markings on the mount are an indication of the history of the object, its movement through the museum and the way in which it is categorised.

The mount is white. In the top right corner of the mount is a label which reads: A.in.SIGIRIA. A label printed with the title is pasted on the mount beneath the photograph and the museum number is handwritten in the bottom right hand corner.

Historical significance: This naturally occurring rock cave forms part of Lion rock, on which the ruins of the palace fortress remain. The cave appears to have been formerly enclosed by brick walls, with the walls and ceiling plastered in chunam (a type of lime cement) and painted. It may be one of many caves prepared by devotees to the Buddhist sangha (a community of ordained Buddhist monks) which was used as a shelter and monastery from the 5th century BC.

Sigiriya is dominated by the remains of the palace fortress, built on the 200m high plateau of Lion Rock. Both Sigiriya and the rock on which it rests derive their names (Sinha-Giri) from the lions which reputedly occupied nearby caves in ancient times. Built between 477-485 AD, the royal palace was surrounded by a wall and double moat. The entire site, including the city, cisterns and ponds, was built over a period of seven years and effectively abandoned after 18 years. Ancient ruins of pipes and rock-cut channels remain, which provided water for bathing pools in the palace above and fountains in the gardens below. Excavations have revealed surface and underground drainage systems with water pumps powered by windmills. The citadel ceased to be a palace after Moggallana’s reign and was inhabited by monks until 1155, when it was abandoned. It was not rediscovered by archaeologists until 1828. Sigiriya was designated a World Heritage Site in 1982 and is now frequently referred to as the ‘eighth wonder of the world’.
Historical context
This is one of a series of photographs taken by Lawton of the archaeological sites of Anuradhapura, Mihintale, Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya (1870-71). This series was commissioned by the Archaeological Committee (set up by the Governor of Ceylon in 1868) and became his signature work. Photographic surveys, conducted by Lawton and competitors such as the more prolific commercial firm WLH Skeen and Co., coincided with antiquarian scholarship that emerged as a result of the deforestation necessary to lay roadways, railways and plantations in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. This process was propelled by an expansion of both the export and tourist economies. A colleague of Lawton's proposed that his involvement in the physical labour of clearing the archaeological sites that he photographed contributed to his death. After Lawton's death, many prints were produced by the firm for the tourist market, however, the original negatives were sold to a variety of different clients and are now considered to be lost.
Production
Likely printed between 1872 and 1882

Attribution note: This is one of a series of photographs taken by Lawton of the archaeological sites of Anuradhapura, Mihintale, Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya (1870-71), commissioned by the Archaeological Committee which the Governor of Ceylon set up in 1868. Two sets of these photographs were produced by Lawton: one which remained in Sri Lanka (now in such poor condition it is considered to be unusable) and a second which was sent to the Colonial Office in London (first kept in the Library of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and now in The National Archives). After Lawton's death in 1872, further images were produced by the firm under the supervision of his wife and sold largely to a tourist market. Reprints of this particular photograph appear in an album currently held in the Word and Image Department (PH.1202:85-1920) as well as in the Scott Collection (92/16/3) within the India Office Select Materials of the British Library.
Subject depicted
Place depicted
Summary
This naturally occurring rock cave forms part of Lion Rock, on which there are the ruins of a palace fortress. The cave may have been used by Buddhist monks as a monastery from the 5th century BC.

Joseph Lawton (died 1872), a British commercial photographer, was active in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) between 1866 and 1872. Though he was initially employed by the firm HC Bryde, by the mid 1860s he had established his own studio in Kandy. Lawton was commissioned by the Archaeological Committee to photograph the main archaeological sites in Sri Lanka. He created a unique series of aesthetically powerful images of Anuradhapura, Mihintale, Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya.

Official photographic surveys conducted by Lawton and others documented the architecture and facilitated antiquarian scholarship. However, as a commercial photographer, Lawton made sure that his photographs were not merely documentary. His images were taken to appeal to tourists and overseas buyers seeking picturesque views of ancient ruins overgrown with creepers and gnarled trees.
Bibliographic references
  • Regeneration: A Reappraisal of Photography in Ceylon, 1850-1900. London: British Council, 2000. ISBN 086355444X
  • Falconer, John. Pattern of photographic surveys: Joseph Lawton in Ceylon. In: Pelizzari, Maria Antonella. ed. Traces of India: Photography, Architecture, and the Politics of Representation, 1850-1900. Montréal: Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2003. 156-173p., ISBN 0920785743.
Other number
98 - Negative number
Collection
Accession number
82768

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Record createdMarch 11, 2008
Record URL
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