Lot 212: DOMENICO ROBERTI

DOMENICO ROBERTI ROME CIRCA 1642 - 1707 CAPRICCI OF ROMAN RUINS WITH SOLDIERS AND MERCHANTS CONVERSING, THE COLOSSEUM AND A ROCKY BAY BEYOND; A COASTAL LANDSCAPE WITH SHEPHERDS AND ELEGANT FIGURES AMONGST RUINS Quantity: 2 a pair, both oil on canvas the former: 142.2 by 193.5 cm.; 56 by 76 1/4 in. the latter: 137.5 by 193.6 cm.; 54 1/8 by 76 1/4 in.

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 11 December 1987, lot 147 (as by Ghisolfi) where acquired by the present owner.

A smaller variant of the first view, formerly in the collection of Peter Vischer-Sarasin (1751-1823) was sold London, Christie's, 6 July 1990, lot 10 (canvas, 99.5 x 135.3 cm.) as by Giovanni Ghisolfi. The figures in that work may be by the same hand as those in the present pair. The composition of the pendant is indebted to the smaller canvas (86 x 125 cm.) by Ghisolfi himself formerly in the Galleria Rospigliosi in Rome, in which the ruins and classical fragments on the right hand side of the composition are also to be found υ1. The classical relief with horses and soldiers is inspired by that on the Arch of Titus in Rome, while the statue of the river god is based upon that in the Museo Pio-Clementino in the Vatican.

We are grateful to David Ryley Marshall for confirming the attribution to Roberti on the basis of photographs, and for suggesting a date of execution circa 1690-1700. Roberti became a member of the Congregazione dei Virtuosi in Rome in 1678 and later its head in 1704, and a member of the Academy of Saint Luke in 1688.



1. For which see A. Busiri Vici, Giovanni Ghisolfi (1623-1683). Un pittore milanese di rovine romane, Rome 1992, p. 74, no. 27, reproduced.