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Sculpted Plinth in the Villa Medici (Ancient Altar in the Villa Medici)
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
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Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Sculpted Plinth in the Villa Medici (Ancient Altar in the Villa Medici)
c.1753-54 (undated)
Black chalk, brown wash, stump and white gouache on medium, moderately-textured, blue-grey laid paper
191 x 244 mm
7 1/2 x 9 5/8 in.
B1977.14.5745
D233
Tercentenary 2014 (25)
Iolo Williams; Paul Mellon
Inscribed by the artist in black chalk, lower centre: 'in the Villa Medici'
While in Rome Wilson lived close to the Villa Medici on the Pincian Hill so the inscription is likely to be accurate. This altar remains unidentified and is not to be found among the sculpture from the Villa Medici now in Florentine collections. Wilson often included antiquities of this kind in the foreground of his Roman landscapes.
Object ID: 15046
Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 222