Rome: St Peter's and the Vatican from the Janiculum

Rome: St Peter's and the Vatican from the Janiculum
Rome: St Peter's and the Vatican from the Janiculum
Rome: St Peter's and the Vatican from the Janiculum
Tate, London 2014
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
Rome: St Peter's and the Vatican from the Janiculum
Date
c.1753-54 (undated)
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Metric: 100.3 x 139.1 cm
Imperial: 39 1/2 x 54 3/4 in.
Accession Number
T01873
Wilson Online Reference
P57
Description
The view extends over Rome to the north-west from the Janiculum Hill in Trastevere. The landscape to the north of the city, on the left, is dominated by the Vatican, with the dome of St Peter's and the Roman Campagna beyond. In front of the Vatican is the shaded façade of the Quartiere di Cavalleggieri (Quarters of the Light Horse Guard). The colonnade and obelisk of the Piazza San Pietro are also visible. On the horizon, to the right, is Mount Soratte (Soracte to the ancient Romans), about 28 miles from Rome. In the right foreground is a famous antique relief showing Maenads leading a bull to sacrifice. A similar relief was once in the Medici collection and is now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, with a copy in the Vatican Museum.
Exhibited
BI 1814 (197 or 201 - A View of Rome); BI 1844 (141 or 147); Manchester 1857 (Modern Masters, 34 - Rome, with St Peter's); Royal Academy, Old Master Exhibition, 1879 (234 - View of St Peter's Rome); Birmingham 1948-49 (18); London 1949 (17); Manchester 1957 (190); Norwich 1958 (60); Munich 1979-80 (92); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (68); London 1996-97 (92); Tercentenary 2014 (61)
Provenance
Commissioned or purchased in Rome by William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth; by descent to Lady Templemore; sold May 1974 to the Tate Gallery, London with assistance from the National Art Collections Fund and an anonymous donor through John Baskett Ltd, 173 New Bond Street, London W.1.
Signature/inscription
Unsigned; no inscription
Subject
In antiquity the Janiculum Hill was known for noble villas, military triumphs, ancient burials and Christian martyrdoms. In the 17th and 18th centuries the area had associations with the Pamphilj family, one of whom, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Pamphilj, reigned as Pope Innocent X from 1644 to 1655. The prospect was equally famous with that of its pendant, P56 Rome from the Villa Madama, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. However, it is now largely obscured by buildings.
Related Drawings
D204 View of St Peter's from the Palace of the Caesars, with the Circus Maximus below, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Leonora Gurley Memorial Collection
D311 View of St Peter's and the Vatican from the Janiculum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Related Prints
E59 Samuel Middiman, View of Rome, for Forster's British Gallery of Engravings, 1807, and other impressions
Versions
See 'Links' tab
Related Paintings
Pendant: P56 Rome from the Villa Madama, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Critical commentary
The second of two views of Rome commissioned by Lord Dartmouth, one of Wilson's key patrons in Italy, this is among Wilson's most ambitious early Italian landscapes. The design seems to have been in emulation of Jan Frans van Bloemen (l'Orizzonte) and Claude. This is the earliest version of the subject and was painted as a pair to P56, which is dated 1753. The city of Rome is seen from a greater distance than in the related drawing D311.
Bibliography
Catalogue 1814, p. 21; Ford 1951, p. 21; Ford 1952, pp. 311-12, fig.3; Waterhouse 1953, p. 175; WGC, pp. 33, 71, 220, pl. 110a; Sutton & Clements 1968, vol. 2, p. 10, fig. 11; Howard 1969, p. 732, fig. 21; Tate Gallery Report, 1974-6, March 1976; Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London, Tate Gallery, 1978, pp. 42-43; Solkin, 1982, p. 186; Clark & Bowron 1985, p. 267 under cat. 195; Galassi 1991, pp. 89-90, pl. 102; Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 249
Link to WG Constable Archive Record
Condition/Conservation
Framed in a period rococo frame identical in design to that of its pendant, P56. Dimensions with frame: 101 x 157.5 x 90 cm. Cleaned at the Tate Gallery in 1974. Visual examination and sampling by Ann Baxter. Kate Lowry has noted: White priming; unusually thick paint in foreground darks, which suffer from drying crackle; sky consists of several layers of Prussian blue mixed with lead white; the upper layer of sky paint contains ultramarine.
Updated by Compiler
2018-08-28 00:00:00