* Hendrik Frans van Lint, called Studio Antwerp 1684 - 1763 Rome

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, March 24, 1976, lot 31 (sold as a pair with The Piazza San Marco with the Piazzetta,
Venice);
With Colnaghi, London;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, December 10, 1986, lot 41(sold as a pair with The Piazza San Marco with the Piazzetta, Venice);
With Richard Green, London;
By whom (anonymously) sold, New York, Sotheby's, January 14, 1988, lot 160 (sold as a pair with The Piazza San Marco with the Piazzetta, Venice);
There purchased by the present collector.

Van Lint settled in Rome in circa 1710 where he became a member of a confraternity of Northern painters active in that city called the "schildersbent."  His moniker "Studio" referred to the painstaking precision with which he rendered both figures and architecture.  He often signed in the Italian form of his name "Enrico," as is the case with the present painting.

The Piazza del Popolo, one of the grandest public spaces in Rome, stands at the apex of the famous triangle of roads (Via del Babuino, Via del Corso and Via di Ripetta) known as the "Trident."  The twin churches of Santa Maria di Montesanto (at left) and Santa Maria dei Miracoli (at right), designed by Carlo Rainaldi (1611-91), dominate the southern end of the Piazza.  The obelisk at center was placed there in 1589 by Sixtus V.  Over 3,000 years old, it had originally been brought to Rome by Augustus after the conquest of Egypt to adorn the Circus Maximus.  Today, the piazza is ovoid, rather than rectangular as it appeared in Van Lint's time, having been transformed as such in the 19th century by Giuseppe Valadier who also designed the Pincio Gardens that lie above the Piazza.