Gaspar van Wittel, called Vanvitelli Amersfoort 1652/3 - 1736 Rome

This view is taken from the left bank of the river Tiber, roughly at the southern point of the Isola Tiberina. On the extreme left is an arch (in front of which laundry has been hung out to dry) and this structure, which is recorded in Falda's map of 1676, was situated between the river and the road leading to the church of Santa Maria Egiziaca. The church of Santa Maria Egiziaca, partially visible beyond the arch, had been converted from a roman temple called the Tempio della Fortuna Virile. The campanile of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin and the rounded Temple of Vesta beside it, which at the time of Vanvitelli housed the church of Santa Maria del Sole (and before that Santo Stefano delle Carrozze), rise at the left of the composition. The houses nearby once formed part of the convent annexed to that church and beside them was a terraced garden, below which the Cloaca Massima opened into the Tiber. The Aventine Hill rises in the centre distance, with its medieval towers and walls surrounding the religious complex of Santa Sabina, Sant' Alessio and the church of the Priorato dei Cavalieri Gerosolimitani. At the extreme right of the composition, on the right bank of the Tiber, is the church of San Salvatore (now destroyed). The Ponte Rotto, which is the focal point of this particular view, had been built by Pope Gregory XIII and was completed in 1575, replacing an earlier bridge built by Pope Julius III which had been destroyed in the flood of 1557. In 1598 Gregory's bridge was also partially destroyed during a flood and was never repaired: it can still be seen today, very much as it appears in this painting.

Although eight other variants of this composition are known, and all are on a relatively small scale, they all differ in the placement of boats and staffage (see G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel, Milan 1996, pp. 194-6, cat. nos. 172-9, all reproduced). Of those published, only four are paintings (Colonna collection, Rome; Pinacoteca Capitolina, Rome; Roman private collection; Museo di Roma (Palazzo Braschi), Rome; Briganti, op. cit., cat. nos. 176-8) whilst the remaining four are executed in tempera (two in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome; one in the Colonna collection, Rome; and one in a Roman private collection; Briganti, ibid., cat. nos. 172-5). However much these views differ in their details, they probably all derive from Vanvitelli's preparatory drawing in the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele, Rome, which is of an elongated format very similar to that adopted in the present canvas (pen, ink and wash on squared paper; see Briganti, ibid., p. 397, cat. no. D317, reproduced p. 399). Three of Vanvitelli's known versions of this view are dated (1681, 1684 and 1685) and most of the others have been dated to the 1680s, a date which also seems plausible for the present work.