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    Strada Nomentana - I (View in Italy)

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    Strada Nomentana - I (View in Italy)
    Strada Nomentana - I (View in Italy)
    Strada Nomentana - I (View in Italy)
    Tate, London 2014
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Strada Nomentana - I (View in Italy)
    Date
    c.1765-70 (undated)
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 57.1 x 76.2 cm
    Imperial: 22 1/2 x 30 in.
    Collection
    Tate, London. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    N00301
    Wilson Online Reference
    P104
    Description
    The Sedia del Diavolo near the Via Nomentana is seen in the centre, with a dismounted figure attending to his saddlebag before it as his donkey brays in the evening sunlight. His staff rests against a large antique stone fragment in the left foreground. To the right are a seated woman with a babe in arms and a naked child. The scene is framed by a tree and saplings to the left and a cliff with foliage to the right; in the background are a silhouetted tower on a hill and distant mountains.
    Exhibited
    BI 1841 (79 - Strada Nomentana, lent Vernon); Birmingham 1948-49 (38 - View in Italy); London 1949 (37 - View in Italy)
    Provenance
    Sir John Boyd; probably sold Coxe, 7 May 1805 (57 - Landscape and Water, Ruins and Figures); William Esdaile; sold Christie's, 24 March 1838 (68 - A ruin on the bank of an Italian lake, with a man adjusting a sack on the back of a mule ...), bt Vernon; presented by Robert Vernon to the National Gallery, 1847; transferred to the Tate Gallery
    Signature/inscription
    Unsigned; no inscription
    Techniques and materials
    There are extensive pentimenti round the foreground building and rocks at the right and round the tree in the centre top right. These trees are not painted over reserves but are built up satisfactorily.
    Subject
    The Via Nomentana runs north-east from Rome. The ruin has been identified as the Sedia del Diavolo, one of a number of similar tombs that stand along its length. It appears in several other works, e.g. P68 Classical Landscape with Venus, Adonis and Cupids, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
    Related Prints
    E91 Charles Cousen, The Ruined Temple, The British Museum
    E91A Charles Cousen, The Ruined Temple, Private Collection, England
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Related Paintings
    P68 Classical Landscape with Venus, Adonis and Cupids, c.1754-55, Victoria & Albert Museum, London (105-1878)
    Related Works by Other Artists
    [1] Francis Towne (1739-1816): A Sepulchre by the Roadside going from Rome to the Ponte Nomentana, watercolour, 1780, The British Museum (Nn,2.14)
    Bibliography
    The Art Journal, 1854, p. 76, repr.; Ford 1951, p. 64, under no. 81; WGC, pp. 92, 210, pl. 96a
    Link to WG Constable Archive Record
    WGC/1/1/107
    Condition/Conservation
    Dimensions with frame: 82 x 100.3 cm. In 2010, it needed cleaning, covered with discoloured varnish overall.
    Kate Lowry has noted: Extensive pentimenti around foreground ruin and foliage against the sky at right. Pentimenti have been retouched. Would benefit from cleaning and further investigation. Excellent foreground figures.
    Updated by Compiler
    2016-02-11 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Prints

    • Charles Cousen, The Ruined Temple, The British Museum
    • Charles Cousen, The Ruined Temple, Private Collection, England

    Paintings

    • Classical Landscape with Venus, Adonis and Cupids, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

    Biographies

    • William Esdaile (1758-1837)
    • Robert Vernon (1774-1849)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • Brinsley Ford, The Drawings of Richard Wilson
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