Gaspar van Wittel, called Vanvitelli

This hitherto unpublished picture constitutes a significant addition to Vanvitelli's oeuvre and to his other renderings of the subject. Until this picture's appearance only one other picture of similar composition was known: a small canvas sold in these rooms, 3 December 1969, lot 34, now in a private collection (G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel, ed. L. Laureati and L. Trezzani, Milan 1996, p. 162, cat. no. 83, reproduced; more recently published by L. Trezzani, in Gaspare Vanvitelli e le origini del vedutismo, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Chiostro del Bramante, 26 October 2002 - 2 February 2003, p. 115, cat. no. 21, reproduced in colour). Though the overall mise-en-scène is the same in both pictures, with the Arch of Titus shown slightly right of centre, there are some architectural differences between the two and the staffage has also been changed significantly. In the present version Vanvitelli has chosen to omit the Palazzina degli Orti Farnesiani, visible upper left in the ex-Sotheby's painting, and the arched ruins centre left have here been replaced with a simple brick wall. Both scenes are bathed in a late-afternoon light and though they are highly comparable in terms of quality and execution, thereby suggesting a similar date, the present variant does appear to have a greater sense of depth, the row of trees in the centre helping to guide our eye through the archway to the Campo Vaccino beyond.

The Arch of Titus was painted by Vanvitelli on several other occasions: five are on canvas, one on copper, and one is a tempera (see Briganti, op. cit., 1996, pp. 160-2, cat. nos. 76-83, all reproduced). Of these only one - that signed and dated 1714 and formerly at Walsingham Abbey - is of horizontal format (Briganti, ibid., cat. no. 80, reproduced). The Arch was frequently painted by vedutisti throughout the 18th century, and many chose to portray it from this side because of the bas-relief’s better state of preservation: compare, for example, Bernardo Bellotto’s canvas of circa 1743-44, formerly in the Earl of Lovelace’s collection (see E.P. Bowron, in Bernardo Bellotto and the Capitals of Europe, exhibition catalogue, Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts, 29 July - 21 October 2001, pp. 106-7, cat. no. 23, reproduced in colour), and Giovanni Paolo Panini’s signed and dated canvas of 1754 today in Springfield, Springfield Museum of Art (see F. Arisi, Gian Paolo Panini e i fasti della Roma del ’700, Rome 1986, p. 452, cat. no. 446, reproduced).

The Arch of Titus was erected in A.D. 81-82 to honour the victories of Titus and Vespasian in the Judean War, which had ended the Sack of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The inscription on a marble slab, which in Vanvitelli’s view appears cracked and fragmented, was subsequently restored; indeed it appears whole in both Bellotto and Panini’s renditions dating from later in the century. In 1821 Giuseppe Valadier undertook a restoration project for the Arch, ordering it to be taken down and reconstructed in isolation, at the same time completing any missing parts with travertine. Through the Arch on the left we see the Farnese Gardens (Orti Farnesiani), contained behind Vignola’s 16th-century wall (since demolished). Beyond that is the Campo Vaccino with two of the three columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux visible in the sunlight, and on the horizon the tower of the Campidoglio soars above the trees. The foreground area, by comparison with Vanvitelli’s other vertical-format views of the site, would appear to be the fruit of the artist’s imagination.