The Torre del Fiscale near Rome

The Torre del Fiscale near Rome
The Torre del Fiscale near Rome
The Torre del Fiscale near Rome
National Galleries of Scotland / Photography by Antonia Reeve
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
The Torre del Fiscale near Rome
Date
c.1752-56 (undated)
Medium
Black and white chalk on paper
Dimensions
Metric: 256 x 197 mm
Imperial: 10 1/16 x 7 13/16 in.
Accession Number
D 4666
Wilson Online Reference
D181
Exhibited
London 1916 (11 - Landscape Sketch)
Provenance
Herbert Horne (1864-1916); Sir Edward Marsh (1872-1953); presented through the National Art Collections Fund 1953, from the collection of Sir Edward Marsh
Signature/inscription
Unsigned; inscribed verso
Verso inscriptions
[1] Black chalk: M[onte] Novo / Nissida
[2] Slight topographical studies of mountains, presumably identified by the above inscription(s)
Mount inscriptions
[1] The London Burlington Fine Arts Club 1916 catalogue entry is adhered to the modern mount. It suggests incorrectly that this drawing probably shows a view near Naples and that the two sketches on the verso appear to have been taken from Pozzuoli.
Subject
The Torre del Fiscale is a square brick tower by the Via Appia Nuova near Rome, which was placed at a bend in an aqueduct in order to strengthen it.
Related Paintings
P187 The Torre del Fiscale, near Rome, Gloucester City Museum and Art Gallery
Critical commentary
D181 is a study for P187 in the collection of the Gloucester City Museum and Art Gallery, a small painting, little more than an oil sketch, by Wilson. In the painting the vegetation hanging from the archway is omitted, there is a third figure at the lower left and the tower is given a flat roof, but otherwise the composition is very similar.

Bibliography
Binyon 1916, p. 20; WGC, p.119, pl.77a; Constable 1954, p. 147, fig. 8; Baker 2011, p. 415