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    300 years
    "Solkin 1982" Is linked to these Works of Art
    of 176

    Landscape Capriccio on the Via Aemilia…

    Landscape Capriccio on the Via Aemilia…
    Landscape Capriccio on the Via Aemilia…
    Landscape Capriccio on the Via Aemilia…
    Private Collection, New York / Photograph by Alan Roche, New York
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Landscape Capriccio on the Via Aemilia, with the Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli and the Broken Bridge at Narni
    Date
    Probably 1754 (undated)
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 102.7 x 139 cm
    Imperial: 40 1/2 x 55 in.
    Collection
    Private Collection, New York
    Wilson Online Reference
    P66
    Description
    The imaginary scene includes an array of classical ruins taken from different parts of Italy, assembled for the purpose of didactically conveying the decline and fall of ancient Rome. The foreground contains an ancient sarcophagus, symbolising death and decay. It stands before a ruin, perhaps taken as a tomb by Wilson, bearing an inscribed stone which presumably refers to the Via Aemilia, the road from Rimini to Piacenza, constructed by the consul M. Aemilius Lepidus in c.186 BC. To the right is the Temple of the Sibyl from Tivoli, built during the 1st century BC during the reign of the dictator Sulla, while in the middle distance is the broken bridge at Narni, constructed by the Emperor Augustus. Beyond this to the left rises the Torre delle Milizie, a medieval tower overlooking the Forum of Trajan in Rome.
    Exhibited
    Plymouth City Museum, West of England Treasures July, 1954; London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (73)
    Provenance
    Commissioned 1752-53 by Stephen Beckingham from the artist; Thomas Wright, Upton Hall, Newark by 1824; his sale, Christie's London, 7 June 1845; Sassoon House, Brighton; Lt. Col. P.L.E. Walker, Chipping Sodbury; with Spink London (no. K26459); Anon sale, Christie's London, 24 November 1972 (81); with Spink & Son, London, 1975; Mr and Mrs Brian Thomas; Anon sale Christie's London 23 November 2005 (53), where bt by the present owner
    Signature/inscription
    Unsigned; inscribed on stone at left: M | EMILIA | V.A. XVII
    Techniques and materials
    There are pentimenti in the smaller tree at the right. The ground is brown.
    Related Drawings
    D228 Ionic Capitals, Private Collection, England
    Related Prints
    E72/27 Thomas Hastings Untitled (Landscape Capriccio on the Via Aemilia), The British Museum (1854,0708.84) and other impressions
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Related Paintings
    Pendant P67 Landscape Capriccio with the Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo
    P66C Italian River Landscape with a broken Bridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
    Related Works by Other Artists
    This is closely related to Claude Lorrain's Landscape with the Flight into Egypt, 1663, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, in Wilson's day at the Palazzo Colonna, Rome
    Critical commentary
    Together with its companion piece P67 (see 'Related Paintings'), also commissioned by Stephen Beckingham in Rome, this painting is more complex and ambitious in terms of iconography than any of the other landscapes known to have been produced by Wilson while abroad. The composition appears to have been based on Claude's Landscape with the Flight into Egypt, 1663, Thyssen Bornemisza Collection, Madrid, which Wilson may have seen at the Palazzo Colonna, Rome. A strong visual message of the work is the history of declining ancient civilisation and its potential application to eighteenth-century Britain.
    Bibliography
    Constable 1962, pp. 141-42, under col. 2, no.2, fig. 9; The Connoisseur, July 1974; The Burlington Magazine, June 1975, 'Notable Works of Art now on the Market'; Solkin 1982, pp. 41-42, 189-90, cat. 73, pl. III; Clark & Bowron 1985, p. 254, cat. 164; Solkin 2015, pp. 144, 212
    Link to WG Constable Archive Record
    WGC/1/1/99
    More Information
    The second version P66A features a different grouping of the figures in the left foreground with a younger woman. The details on the right are more sunken in this painting and the urn and plinth are not so obvious.
    Condition/Conservation
    In an eighteenth-century frame. According to the owner, cleaned after November 2005 by Alain Goldrich, New York when 'a great deal of overpaint was removed. The original paint was all there; it was just a case of an overly aggressive treatment of craquelure ...' .
    Kate Lowry has noted: Glue relined. Stretcher dates from lining. Probably a pink/brown ground. This is fully covered by light tone of the sky but is visible in foreground where the paint is thinner. The trees are also very dark against the sky and the distant mountains are less well drawn. There is some loss of detail in the foreground due to overcleaning.

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), Ionic Capitals, Private Collection, England

    Prints

    • Thomas Hastings after Wilson, Untitled (Landscape Capriccio on the Via Aemilia), The British Museum

    Versions

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Italian River Landscape with a broken Bridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The Broken Bridge at Narni, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Landscape Capriccio on the Via Aemilia, with the Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli and the broken Bridge at Narni, Private Collection, England

    Paintings

    • Pendant: Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), Landscape Capriccio with the Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo

    Exhibitions

    • London, Tate Gallery, Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, and New Haven, Conn., Yale Center for British Art, 3 November 1982 - 19 June 1983

    Biographies

    • Stephen Beckingham (1729-1813)
    • Thomas Wright (1773-1845)

    Documents

    • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction
    • Thomas Wright, Some Account of the Life of Richard WiIson Esq., R.A., collected and arranged by T. Wright, Esq. To which are added various Observations
    • Anthony M. Clark and Edgar Peters Bowron, Pompeo Batoni: A Complete Catalogue of his Works with an Introductory Text
    • William George Constable, 'Richard Wilson: A Second Addendum'
    • David Solkin, Art in Britain 1660-1815
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