The Port of Ripa Grande, Rome

Gaspar Adriaansz. van Wittel, better known today by his Italian moniker, Gaspare Vanvitelli, was incontestably the most influential vedutista of his generation. Born in Amersfoort, he is first recorded in Italy in 1675 and, like many northern painters, he settled in Rome, where he would remain until his death in 1736. Other northern artists had responded to classical buildings in the Eternal City and to the light of the Roman Campagna, but none showed such a systematic interest in topography. While Claude’s evocations of Italian landscape were informed by his close study of nature, Vanvitelli’s views were developed from the accurate and often very detailed drawings he made on his Italian journeys. By the early 1690s, he had learned how most effectively to use these, replicating successful compositions as determined by specific patrons or the market at large. He understood his patrons’ desire for accurate records of the major cities and other sites they had visited, and honed his art to that end. His successful exploitation of the genre was evidently registered by artists in Venice; and had a significant bearing there on the careers of Carlevarijs and Canaletto, and thus indirectly on those of Marieschi, Bellotto and Guardi. Back in Rome, Panini was yet more directly indebted to Vanvitelli’s example.

Vanvitelli turned repeatedly to this stretch of the river Tiber as inspiration for his paintings. This particular panorama shows the ramps of the quay of Ripa Grande by the Customs House on the left, behind which rises the tower of the church of Santa Maria in Torre. Beyond this are the Pamphilj palazzina and garden, with the smaller campanile of the church of Santa Maria in Capella behind. All these buildings, with the exception of Santa Maria in Capella, were destroyed to make way for the Collegio di San Michele and, in the nineteenth century, for the construction of the Lungotevere. On the right, at the foot of the Aventine Hill, is the Via Marmorata, used for transporting marble from the quarries at Carrara and leading on to the ancient saltworks.

The present canvas was once accompanied by a pendant depicting The River Tiber at the Porto della Legna, Rome, now in a private collection (fig. 1; Briganti, op. cit., 1996, pp. 176-177, no. 121). The Porto della Ripa Grande is known in three further versions: one slightly smaller canvas, neither signed nor dated (Accademia di San Luca, Rome); another, larger canvas, also unsigned and undated (private collection, Rome); and a third, signed version in tempera on parchment (Colonna collection, Rome; Briganti, op. cit., 1996, pp. 200-201, nos. 191, 193, 192, respectively). The views all appear to be based on the same preparatory drawing by Vanvitelli, now in the Biblioteca Nazionale, Rome, and each have corresponding pendants showing the Porta della Legna. Beyond their differing dimensions and media, all four versions also vary in the positioning of the boats and the disposition of the figures. The present canvas is signed and dated 1690. The other three must all have been executed before 1704, as none depicts the ramp at the Porto di Ripetta, built that year for Pope Clemente XI by Alessandro Specchi (G.-R. Flick, op. cit., p. 16).