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

This fascinating drawing on parchment is quite unique in Vanvitelli's oeuvre. We are grateful to Laura Laureati who, having seen the original, has confirmed the attribution to Vanvitelli and read the inscription which does not seem to appear on any other known work by the artist.  It includes Vanvitelli's pseudonym, Toorts, which he acquired in 1675, the year after his arrival in the city, when he joined the Schilderbent (the fraternity of northern artists working in Rome).  It is not inconceivable that the inscription on this sheet could be autograph.  Also, the date of 1680 is stylistically correct for the drawing, as Laura Laureati has pointed out.  A comparison with the tempera on parchment of the same view in the Staatlichen Museen, Berlin, which is also dated 1680, shows that they are closer in the details of carriages and figures than the tempera in the previous lot (see Giuliano Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel, Milan 1996, p. 132, under no.1, reproduced). See also the previous lot.