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Italy: Rome: the Colosseum. View of the Colosseum from the slopes of the Monte Celio, with a small three-bay villa with roof loggia and the ruined arches of the Baths of Titus on the right. In the distance is the dome of San Luca e Martina.
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Reference number
Adam vol.57/51
Purpose
Italy: Rome: the Colosseum. View of the Colosseum from the slopes of the Monte Celio, with a small three-bay villa with roof loggia and the ruined arches of the Baths of Titus on the right. In the distance is the dome of San Luca e Martina.
Aspect
Perspective
Inscribed
Inscribed in ink 51
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1755 or 1756.
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, pen and grey washes; pencil framing line (bottom)180 x 295
Hand
Robert Adam
Notes
This view by Robert Adam from the Monte Celio may have been made at the same time as he was drawing in the garden of the Villa Celimontana (see Adam vol.57/50). The diagonal umbrella pine, which appears in Adam vol.57/48 - 57/52, suggests a similar type of landscape and also reveals Adam's limited compositional skills. A late seventeenth-century view of the Colosseum by Israel Silvestre (1621-1691) is taken from the same point and clearly shows its 'fantastic setting' of surrounding villa architecture (see R. Keaveney, Views of Rome, London, 1988, pl.23, p.120). A more detailed view may be constructed from G. Nolli, Nuova Pianta di Roma, 1748, which describes the building in the centre as 'Fenile prima sped. di S. Gio. Laterano', and the gardens as those of the Guidi and Pini.
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
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