Tivoli: The Temple of the Sibyl and the Campagna [untitled]

This item is active and ready to use

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

title=Credit line

Larger imageShareFeedback

Artist

William Byrne (1743-1805) after Wilson

Title

Tivoli: The Temple of the Sibyl and the Campagna [untitled]

Date

Published 1 August 1765

Medium

Etching on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper

Dimensions

Metric: 384 x 492 mm (sheet); 337 x 422 mm (plate)
Imperial: 15 1/8 x 19 3/8 in. (sheet); 13 1/4 x 16 5/8 in. (plate)

Collection

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven. To license images click here

Accession Number

B1984.21.429

Wilson Online Reference

E15

Description

A traveller is shown with a dog on a road in the foreground, asking a woman who sits knitting at the roadside for directions. Further left on the bank beyond a framing tree a man drawing in or consulting an open book is watched by a standing peasant. There is a valley below and classical buildings on a peak to the right, with a bridge or aqueduct and city buildings visible across the plains. Mountains can be seen in the distance.

Exhibited

Tercentenary 2014 (85)

Provenance

Acquired 1984

Signature/inscription

Lettered lower left: 'Richd. Wilson pinxt.' [and] 'No.3.'; lower centre: 'Engraved from the Original Picture Painted by Mr Richard Wilson.'; [and] 'Publish'd according to Act of Parliament by J.BOYDELL, Engraver in Cheapside, London. Augt.1.1765.'; lower right: 'Willm. Byrne sculpt.'

Versions

See 'Links' tab

Related Paintings

P52 Tivoli: The Temple of the Sibyl and the Campagna - I, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
P142 Tivoli: The Temple of the Sibyl and the Campagna - I , Private Collection, England
P142B Tivoli: The Temple of the Sibyl and the Campagna - I, Tate, London
P142C Tivoli: Temple of the Sibyl and the Campagna - I , Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Critical commentary

E15 was engraved by Byrne after P142B Tivoli: The Temple of the Sibyl and the Campagna - I, Tate, London. The print confirms the success of Wilson's Tivoli views painted from memory and imagination in about 1765. However, the prospect is reversed in the print, though it retains the essential elements of any Tivoli view, i.e. the Temple of the Sibyl / Vesta at the summit of the cliffs, the waterfalls and the view over the Roman Campagna. An earlier version of the painting, possibly P52, was used by Wilson in Rome for his students to copy.

Previous Cat/Ref Nos

Object ID: 20829

Bibliography

Edwards 1808, p. 88; WGC, p. 223 under pl. 115a; Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 269

Link to WG Constable Archive Record

WGC/1/1/132

Tivoli: The Temple of the Sibyl and the Campagna [untitled]

Work of Art

Versions

Paintings

Exhibitions

Biographies

Documents