Notes
PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR
This panoramic view of Rome is taken from the gardens of Villa Mellini on the Monte Mario - the highest of the seven hills of Rome at 139 meters - which lies on the north-western side of the city. The view, although taken from a considerable distance (Monte Mario is about three kilometers away from Castel Sant' Angelo) shows the topographical precision characteristic of Lusieri and many monuments can be identified. From left to right, the Porta del Popolo with the dome of Santa Maria del Popolo and the twin churches of Santa Maria in Montesanto and Santa Maria dei Miracoli, and behind these in the distance, the Trinità dei Monti. Further to the right, one can recognize the basilica of Santi Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso, the Quirinale, the Colosseum, the Capitol, the cupola of the Gesù just to the left behind the Pantheon.The three cupolas to the left of Castel Sant' Angelo are probably those of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Sant' Agnese in Agone, and Sant' Andrea della Valle. Between Castel Sant' Angelo and the Vatican, one can identify the domed church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini and the gardens of Villa Doria Pamphilj, while on the extreme right is the dome of Saint Peter's.
Lusieri's panoramic views of Rome and Naples were among the most coveted acquisitions by Grand Tour travellers who went to Rome, Naples and Sicily during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. The Roman-born artist specialized in topographically accurate vistas, created in a laboriously precise process. The time-consuming process coupled with the demand for his work has led to the peculiar fact that while there are some compositions such as the present one, that exists in multiples, there are at the same time highly detailed watercolors which remain unfinished. The process by which Lusieri was able to create and sometimes repeat accurately and exactly the topographical details of a given view is little understood. Some of the initial drawing must have been done in situ, and then finished back in his studio. It is known that Lusieri used tracings to replicate his watercolors, although none seem to exist from his Roman period.
This spectacular view of Rome from high up in the gardens of the Villa Mellini is a recently discovered, unpublished watercolor of a view which Lusieri depicted in three other compositions. All are of similar dimensions with variations to the staffage and foliage in the foreground, the present version is the only one that includes a fruit seller in the foreground. One variant is in the Gemäldegalerie des Akademie des bildenden Künste, Vienna (inv. 403; repr. in A. Ottani Cavini et al., Paysages d'Italie, les peintres du plein air, exhib. cat., Paris, Grand Palais and Mantua, Palazzo Te, 2001, p. 72, no. 45), and two others were sold at Sotheby's, London, 30 June 1986, lot 112, and most recently, Christie's, London, 12 December 2007, lot 220. They measure 63 x 95 cm., 55.2 x 92.7 cm., and 57.3 x 96.8 cm., respectively. The drawing sold at Christie's is dated '1779' while the Vienna version is dated '1783' and the Sotheby's one and the present lot are undated. They are among the earliest known works by Lusieri and certainly the version sold at Christie's in 2007 was done before he left for Naples in 1782. It places him at the Villa Mellini, home to Donna Giulia Falconieri Mellini and her family since the sixteenth century, before many of his contemporaries, most notably the German artist Jakob Philipp Hackert who lived at the villa in the fall of 1781.
In Naples Lusieri continued his successful career as an artist but in 1799 he moved to Constantinople and then to Athens as part of the retinue of the 7th Earl of Elgin. Lusieri remained in Athens for the rest of his life and it seems that his artistic production was secondary to his role as agent and negotiator on Elgin's behalf for the purchase of the marble sculptures from the Parthenon. Lusieri died in Athens in 1821 and only one drawing from his nearly two decades there are known. After his death Lord Elgin acquired the contents of Lusieri's studio, most of which was lost at sea when the ship they were being transported on, the Cambria sank on its way back to England. In 1824 Elgin bought a portfolio of approximately 140 landscape watercolors from the artist's heirs. Many were sold at Christie's, London, 6 July 1965 and twenty others were sold at Sotheby's, London, 30 June 1986. These sales propelled the modern rediscovery of Lusieri.
Lusieri's fall into obscurity after his death is surprising given the many accolades he received in his lifetime from important writers, artists and collectors. Byron described Lusieri in a footnote to Stanza XII, Canto II of Childe Harold as 'An Italian painter of the first eminence...his works as far as they go are most beautiful...' A fellow artist, the Englishman Thomas Jones who is believed to have sketched with Lusieri around the countryside of Naples described him as 'Sigre Giambattista Lusier, a Roman, usually called D. Titta, who made tinted drawings which were admired for their correctness and strict attention to Nature, and many of them purchased by our English Cavaliers' (Memoirs of Thomas Jones, Walpole Society, XXXII, 1946-48, p. 122). The English traveler Reverend Edward Daniel Clarke wrote in 1801, 'This celebrated artist...resided many years in Italy, where he was renowned for his beautiful drawings in water-colours. Many of his best works are in the collections of our English Nobility. By some, his compositions have been deemed too laboured; but his colouring is exquisite, and nothing can exceed the fidelity and perfection of his outline and perspective' (E.D. Clarke, Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia and Africa, Part II, Section 2, p. 469, nt.).
We are grateful to Aidan Weston-Lewis for his assistance with this catalogue entry.
