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THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN (LOTS 28 & 29)
Two Roman views by Giovanni Battista Lusieri
These two sheets represent respectively the first and third parts of a four-part 180-degree panorama of Rome, running in its entirety from Saint Peter's at the left through to the Campagna at the right. The second part of the panorama, linking these two, is untraced and presumed lost; the fourth is in a private collection (see Edinburgh, op. cit., nos. 6-8). Not only would they have originally shown a continuous prospect over the city, but it seems that they also formed a chronological continuum: the bright morning sunshine of the first part, in which the clock on the wall of a large building in the foreground reads 8:10 am, gives way in the third part to the longer shadows and subtler lighting of late afternoon, while the fourth part shows the gentle grey twilight over the Campagna.
Probably executed in 1778 or 1779, these views are among Lusieri's earliest known works, dating from the same period as The Illumination of the Cross in Saint Peter's (1778; Klassik Stiftung, Weimar; Edinburgh, 2012, no. 1), his earliest dated picture. However, their clarity, topographical attention to detail and the whole concept of representing the city by means of a panorama sets them apart as creating what Aidan Weston-Lewis in the Edinburgh catalogue describes as 'a critical new departure' into a genre which Lusieri would come to dominate. Indeed, the views already show a spirit very close to that of Thomas Jones, the Welsh artist who would later become Lusieri's friend and neighbour in Naples.
This panorama was bought soon after completion by Philip Yorke (1757-1834), later 3rd Earl of Hardwicke, the most important of Lusieri's early patrons and the only one known to have commissioned work from him in this early Roman period. There is no clear evidence to determine whether the panorama was commissioned by Yorke, or executed speculatively by Lusieri, but it is interesting to note that Yorke's journal entry for 5 November 1778 records that he had visited this exact spot, from which he had admired the vista of Rome. The panorama is not mentioned in the correspondence which Yorke later exchanged with his Roman agent and so was presumably finished before he returned to England in April 1779.
Lusieri insisted on working outdoors wherever possible, not only on early sketches but also on highly-finished, large-scale watercolours, as is recorded by John Fuller, who saw him in progress on a panorama of the Attic plain in Athens in 1820. Although the sheer size of the present works makes it likely that Lusieri finished them off in his studio, there is nothing to counteract the idea that he at least began them en plein air. The extraordinary technique used to bring the views to such a high level of detail, with such a degree of topographical accuracy and a thoroughly convincing treatment of the light, caused some of Lusieri's contemporaries, such as Hugh Grecian Williams, to wonder whether he used some form of equipment to record the view, such as a camera obscura. However, Aidan Weston-Lewis argues in the Edinburgh catalogue that there is no firm evidence to support this and that a camera obscura would have been unable to cope with the detail and breadth of the views that Lusieri represented. They are, rather, the result of the artist's own sharp eyesight and passion for detail.
The views represented in these two works have now changed dramatically and so the watercolours are valuable for their faithful documentation of the 18th-Century city. Moreover, they are exceptionally fine examples of how Philip Yorke and his fellow Grand Tourists tried, through purchasing and commissioning art, to preserve the captivating qualities of Italy even after their return home to England.
Giovanni Battista Lusieri, called Titta Lusieri (Rome 1754-1821 Athens)
Panoramic view of Rome from Piazza San Pietro in Montorio on the Janiculum: From Saint Peter's to the Chiesa Nuova with San Giovanni dei Fiorentini and Castel Sant' Angelo
Details
Giovanni Battista Lusieri, called Titta Lusieri (Rome 1754-1821 Athens)
Panoramic view of Rome from Piazza San Pietro in Montorio on the Janiculum: From Saint Peter's to the Chiesa Nuova with San Giovanni dei Fiorentini and Castel Sant' Angelo
pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour
21½ x 36¾ in. (54.5 x 93.5 cm.)
Panoramic view of Rome from Piazza San Pietro in Montorio on the Janiculum: From Saint Peter's to the Chiesa Nuova with San Giovanni dei Fiorentini and Castel Sant' Angelo
pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour
21½ x 36¾ in. (54.5 x 93.5 cm.)
Provenance
Commissioned by Philip Yorke, later 3rd Earl of Hardwicke (1757-1834), probably in 1778-9.
The Earl of Hardwicke, Wimpole Hall and thence by descent.
The Earl of Hardwicke, Wimpole Hall and thence by descent.
Literature
F. Spirito, Lusieri, Naples, 2003, no. 10.
Exhibited
Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, Travels in Italy 1776-1783, Based on the 'Memoirs' of Thomas Jones, 1988, no. 15.
Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, and other locations, Thomas Jones (1742-1803): An Artist Rediscovered, 2003, no. 102.
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, Expanding Horizons: Giovanni Battista Lusieri and the Panoramic Landscape, 2012, no.6.
Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, and other locations, Thomas Jones (1742-1803): An Artist Rediscovered, 2003, no. 102.
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, Expanding Horizons: Giovanni Battista Lusieri and the Panoramic Landscape, 2012, no.6.
Brought to you by
Hélène Rihal
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