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    Landscape Capriccio with the Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii and the…

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    Landscape Capriccio with the Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii and the…
    Landscape Capriccio with the Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii and the…
    Landscape Capriccio with the Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii and the…
    The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Landscape Capriccio with the Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii and the Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli
    Date
    Dated 1754
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 99.1 x 134.5 cm
    Imperial: 39 x 52 15/16 in.
    Collection
    National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    P.1998-0005
    Wilson Online Reference
    P67
    Description
    In the foreground to the right is the so-called tomb of the early Republican heroes, the Horatii and Curiatii, located on the Via Appia Nuova southeast of Albano, on the road to Ariccia. Opposite is a colossal female figure, probably based on a statue at the Villa Medici, later restored to represent the goddess Roma. The middle distance is dominated by the so-called villa of Augustus's courtier, Maecenas, at Tivoli.
    Exhibited
    Society of Artists 1760 (73); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (72); National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Hubert Robert: Les Jardins du Temps, 6 March - 20 May 2012 (101); National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, The Rings from The Hashimoto Collection of The National Museum of Western Art, 8 July - 15 September 2014 (261).
    Provenance
    Stephen Beckingham, bt from Wilson in Rome, 1754; the Hon. Mrs Montagu; Mr Brickdale; Samuel Woodburn; Thomas Wright of Upton, Upton Hall, Newark by 1824; Mrs C. Wright estate sale, Christie's 7 June 1845 (53), bt Hogarth, 77 gns; Christie's 13 June 1851 (49), 115 gns bought in; Elhanan Bicknell, Dulwich; his deceased sale, Christie's 25 April 1863 (74); bt Rutley, 100 guineas; E.A. Leatham, Miserden Hall, 1898; thence by descent to Major Leatham, Church Hill, Church Lane, Worpledon, Surrey; Christie's 20 June 1975 (90); sold for 500 guineas; Derek Johns, London; purchased by National Museum of Western Art, 1998
    Signature/inscription
    Signed and dated on the masonry, lower right: RW | ROMA | 1754
    Subject
    The tomb near Albano is in the Etruscan manner, a massive cube originally surmounted by five obtuse cones of which two are still standing. It appears in a more realistic setting in P61 and other versions.
    Related Paintings
    Pendant: P66 Landscape Capriccio on the Via Aemilia, with the Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli and the Broken Bridge at Narni, Private Collection, New York
    P61 The Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii, Collection of the Earl of Pembroke, Wilton House, Wiltshire & other versions
    Related Works by Other Artists
    [1] J.F. van Blomen (L'Orrizonte), Paesaggio con Monumento degli Orazi e Curiazi, Pericoli Collection, Rome
    [2] Thomas Barker of Bath, The Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii, 1792, National Museum Wales, Cardiff (NMW A 454)
    Critical commentary
    In terms of iconography, this painting and its companion capriccio P66 are more complex and ambitious than any other of the landscapes Wilson is known to have produced while abroad. Thomas Wright of Upton described the composition when in his own collection as having 'an upright dignified senatorial figure, which forms the centre of the beautiful pyramidal group in this picture' and refers to a 'majestic ruin on the right' and to a 'piping shepherdess' and a 'distant waterfall'. The picture, he says, was nearly five feet long and was inscribed in large characters in one corner: R.W. Roma, 1764 [sic].
    Bibliography
    Wright 1824, pp. 68 & 92; Waagen 1854, vol. 2, p. 353, Letter XXI, Mr Bicknell's Collection; 'Time did not permit of my taking notes of all the valuable works of art in this collection, among which I may mention a picture by Wilson - "The Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii"'; WGC, p. 204, pl. 82b as a conflation of recorded versions 3 & 4; Solkin 1982, pp. 41-43 and pp.188-189; Clark & Bowron 1985, p. 254, cat. 164; New Acquisitions. Annual Bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art, no. 33, April 1998 - March 1999, 2000, Kofuku, Akira (also New Acquisitions, pp.19-20 and List of New Acquisitions, p.44, col. repr.); Masterpieces: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2013 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 67, col. repr.; C. Powell, 'A Neglected Turner Patron: Thomas Wright of Upton (1773-1845)', Turner Society News, no. 121, Spring 2014, p. 22
    Link to WG Constable Archive Record
    WGC/1/1/91
    More Information
    The picture is not mentioned in Brettingham's will (2 December 1802) so if the reference to Mrs Montagu is correct he must have parted with it earlier. Wright seems to have brought it from Woodburn, who had obtained it either from Brettingham himself or 'Mr Brickdale'.
    Updated by Compiler
    2022-10-27 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Paintings

    • Pendant: Landscape Capriccio on the Via Aemilia, with the Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli and the Broken Bridge at Narni, Private Collection, New York
    • The Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii, Collection of the Earl of Pembroke, Wilton House, Wiltshire
    • Tomb of the Horatii and the Curatii, near Albano, Italy, Gloucester City Museum and Art Gallery
    • The Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii, The Collection of Mr Darryl Saunders, New Orleans

    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)
    • Samuel Woodburn (1786-1853)
    • Thomas Wright (1773-1845)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • 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
    • Gustav Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain
    • Anthony M. Clark and Edgar Peters Bowron, Pompeo Batoni: A Complete Catalogue of his Works with an Introductory Text
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