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Temple of Bacchus, Rome
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Temple of Bacchus, Rome
c.1754 (undated)
Black chalk on grey paper
238 x 394 mm
9 1/4 x 15 1/2 in.
WA1953.27
D274
Framed by a tree growing on a bank in the left foreground a group of buildings is seen in the middle distance,with a ruined circular one in the centre. Beyond this at the right another circular building with a domed roof is the former Temple of Bacchus, now the Church of Santa Constanza. At the left more buildings include the tower and upper part of the Church of Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura.
Paul Sandby; his sale, Christie's May 1811 (93); Jeffrey; R.P. Roupell; Christie's, 12-14 July 1887 (1357); Edward Riggall; Sotheby's, 4 July 1901 (103); Herbert Horne; Sir Edward Marsh; bequeathed 1953 to the Ashmolean Museum through the National Art-Collections Fund
Unsigned; no inscription
[1] Lower left corner: Paul Sandby (Lugt 2112)
[1] Inscribed in an old hand: The Temple of Bacchus. 10-6
D307 The Temple of Bacchus, The Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum, New York
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This unembellished drawing made on the spot was later worked up into D307, the presentation drawing for Lord Dartmouth. Ford has remarked that the proportions of the dome of the temple/church are more accurate in this version. Brown noted that the trees and other foreground details on the left are more emphasised than the rest of the composition and were probably an addition made in the studio.
Ford 1948, p. 345; Ford 1951, pp. 30-31, 59, no. 53; Solkin 1978, pp. 405-6, pl. 18a; Brown 1982, p. 660, no. 1888
Some spotting overalll