(Amersfoort 1653–1736 Rome)
The Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine, Rome,
signed on the balustrade on the left: Gasparo / Van Witel / Roma,
oil on canvas, 57.5 x 110 cm, framed

Provenance:
with Colnaghi, London;
Private European collection

Literature:
G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel, ed. by L. Laureati/L. Trezzani, Milan 1996, p. 154, no. 58 (as Gaspar van Wittel);

The painter of Dutch origin, Gaspar van Wittel, who was better-known as il Vanvitelli, is considered to be the founding father of the Italian school of view painters or vedutisti. He trained with the landscape and still-life specialist Mathias Withoos and moved to Rome in 1674. Here he began collaborating with his compatriot, the engineer, Cornelis Meyer, producing topographical views of the city, illustrating the project of making the River Tiber navigable. During the same period, he became a member of the Schildersbent (or band of painters) formed by the established community of Dutch painters in Rome.

The artist’s first dated paintings belong to 1680 and demonstrate a perfectly formed style as well as a complete mastery of the use of instruments such as the camera ottica or camera obscura, which he used for composing view paintings.

Between 1690 and 1695 van Wittel made numerous journeys throughout Northern Italy. From 1699 he spent two years in Naples, working in the service of the Viceroy Luis de la Cerda, Duke of Medinaceli. Subsequently, between 1717 and 1718 he was in Urbino working for Cardinal Albani, however, his principal patrons were the princes of the Colonna family in Rome, for whom he produced more than one-hundred paintings.

Through the works of Vanvitelli, it is possible to observe the transition from the painting of ‘ideal’ landscape to the illustration of ‘real’ landscape which until then had not existed in Italian painting. His technique combined the close attention to detail, typical of Northern painting, with a precise topographical rendering of the places represented. This was achieved through the use of the camera ottica, as well as the deployment of highly skilled draughtsmanship as demonstrated by the extraordinary corpus of drawings by the artist in the Vanvitelli archive, conserved in the Reggia di Caserta.

The present signed painting is a significant work and it represents the two greatest monuments in Rome. On the left, is the Flavian Amphitheatre, called the Colossem. Built for gladiatorial events and public spectacles, it was begun in 70 A.D. at the behest of Emperor Vespasian and was completed ten years later by his successor, Titus. To the right, is the Arch of Constantine, the largest commemorative arch to survive since antiquity, it was erected by Constantine to celebrate his victory over Maxentius in 312 A.D.

As recorded by the art historian Giuliano Briganti, this is the largest known version of this subject, painted between the second and third decades of the eighteenth century and as he points out, includes, at the far left, the buildings of the ancient Vigna Sinibaldi which do not appear in any of the other versions of this subject.

This composition attained considerable success and was replicated throughout the eighteenth century, inspiring other great view painters such as Giovanni Paolo Panini and Canaletto (see for example Canaletto’s version in the Royal Collection, Hampton Court Palace).