Lot 37
  • 37

Jan Frans van Bloemen, called l'Orizzonte

Estimate
300,000 - 400,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Jan Frans van Bloemen, called l'Orizzonte
  • A panoramic view of Rome observed from Monte Mario
  • oil on canvas

Provenance

Major Thomas Harvey (1918-2001) and Lady Mary Harvey (1920-1993) who acquired the painting on the London art market in 1946;
Thence by family descent.

Exhibited

Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 16 March - 28 May 2000; Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts, 25 June - 17 September 2000; The Splendour of 18th Century Rome, no. 186.

Literature

E.P. Bowron, J.J. Rishel (eds.), Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia/Houston 2000, pp. 331-332, cat. no. 186, reproduced.

Condition

The following condition report is provided by Rebecca Gregg who is an external expert and not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas appears in good condition, lined with all the keys present and tied in place, the adhesion between the original and the lining canvases appears stable and the overall tension is good. The paint layers appear in good condition, there are no significant recent damages or loss and the adhesion between the paint and ground layers and the support appears good. There is a small loss in the lower right corner and minor scuff marks which appear to have resulted from framing damage. There are minor losses which predominantly have been re-painted scattered throughout the painting. These are primarily located in the upper portion of the painting where small dark spots and some craqulure has been retouched. These are also located in isolated areas of the foreground. This secondary campaign of restoration appears to have been applied on top of the existing varnish layer. Some of the darker elements in the foreground appear to have been re-enforced, particularly in the lower right quadrant. This appears to be below the varnish. There is some discolouration in the upper right quadrant. The varnish layer, which is discoloured and yellowing, appears to have been thinned across the upper part in the lighter areas of the composition and across the lower right where the herd of animals and figures are located.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Catalogue Note

This panoramic view, depicting Rome from the gardens of the villa on Monte Mario, the city lining the banks of the Tiber with the Alban hills beyond, would have been familiar to many 18th century visitors to the Eternal City as they followed the Via Trionfale onto the eastern slopes of Monte Mario. Several of the monuments are identifiable, with the Ponte Milvio on the left, and S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini and the Castel Sant'Angelo on the right. Nearer us, at the extreme right, is the Villa Madama which was designed by Raphael for the Cardinal Giuliano de' Medici (future Pope Clement VII). As such this is one of only a handful of topographical landscapes that van Bloemen painted; although he made numerous plein air pen and ink drawings of Rome and its environs, the vast majority of his painted oeuvre used these sketches merely as a starting point, with the finished product being a view created often in its entirety from the artist's imagination.

There is another version of the composition, of similar dimensions, that was formerly in the collection of Delegazione Montedison, Rome and that sold Milan, Sotheby's, 8 June 1994, lot 268. The differences between the two canvases lie mostly in the staffage which, in all but the detail of the woman climbing the path towards Villa Madama, holding a bundle on her head, is entirely different. One or other of the versions must have been known to Richard Wilson who painted a remarkably similar view of Rome for William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, in 1753, which repeats such incidental details as the triangular highlight on the corner of Villa Madama.1 The ex-Montedison version was dated by Busiri Vici to circa 17352 and by Coekelsberghs, more broadly, to the 1730s.3 Dr Edgar Peters Bowron has proposed a similar date of execution for the present work, circa 1730-35.


1. See W.G. Constable, Richard Wilson, London 1953, pp. 218-9, reproduced plate 107a.
2. A. Busiri Vici, Jan Frans van Bloemen: Orrizonte e l'origine del paesaggio romano Settecentesco, Rome 1974, no. 211, reproduced figs. 10, 33, 34, 190.
3. D. Coeckelsberghs, 'Les Peintres belges à Rome de 1700 à 1830', in Etudes d'histoire de l'art, Brussels and Rome 1976, p. 48.