Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli (from Twelve Original Views in Italy)

Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli (from Twelve Original Views in Italy)
Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli (from Twelve Original Views in Italy)
Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli (from Twelve Original Views in Italy)
The Trustees of the British Museum
title=Credit line
Artist
Michael 'Angelo' Rooker (1746-1801) after Wilson
Title
Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli (from Twelve Original Views in Italy)
Date
Published 29 January 1776
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Metric: 260 x 183 mm
Imperial: 10 1/4 x 7 1/4 in.
Accession Number
1866,0407.208
Wilson Online Reference
E43B
Description
View into the cavernous interior of an ancient ruin at the right, over the vast arches of which grow bushes and drooping plants. Two figures are seen standing in the right foreground and there are antiquities leaning against the wall at the left, with a landscape beyond.
Provenance
Edward Daniell, 53 Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square, London, from whom purchased, 1866
Signature/inscription
Lettered below the image:
[1] Upper left: R. Wilson del.
[2] Upper right: M. Rooker sc.
[3] Centre: VILLA of MAECENAS at TIVOLI.
[4] Publication line: 'Published Jan: 29. 1776 by John Boydell Engraver in Cheapside London.'
Subject
The entrance to one of the colossal arcaded galleries of the Sanctuary of Hercules the Victor at Tivoli, then thought to be the Villa of Maecenas.
Related Drawings
D130 Wilson, The Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli, The British Museum
Related Prints
E72/37 Thomas Hastings after Wilson, Part of Mecenas' Villa at Tivoli, The British Museum
E88 Thomas Abiel Prior after Wilson, Ruins in Italy, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
Versions
See 'Links' tab
Related Paintings
P137 Wilson, The Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli, Tate, London
P137A Wilson, The Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli, Gloucester City Museum and Art Gallery
P137B Wilson, Study at Maecenas' Villa, Tivoli, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
P137C Studio of Wilson, The Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli (Ruins at the Villa of Maecenas, Tivoli), Magdalen College, Oxford
P137D Wilson, The Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli, Private Collection, USA
P137E Studio of Wilson, Villa Maecenas, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario
Critical commentary
This etching derives from Wilson's painting of the same subject now at Tate, London (P137). He paired the latter with P138 The West Belvedere of Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli (Tate, London and many other versions) and this, too, was etched by Rooker (E42). Twelve Original Views in Italy was published by John Boydell as a compilation of etchings by different printmakers, produced over a number of years, after Wilson's drawings or paintings. As Jonathan Yarker has noted Rooker's prints after Wilson were popular with the next generation of English landscape painters and were copied, for example by Thomas Girtin at the 'academy' of Dr Thomas Monro in the mid-1790s.
Bibliography
Edwards 1808, p. 88
More Information
Wilson came to possess Rooker's copper plate of this etching at the end of his career, a time when he could not afford new supports for pictures. He re-used it for the small painting P185 Farm with a Pond, National Museums Northern Ireland Collection Ulster Museum.
Condition/Conservation
Published state