Lot 31: - Thomas Barker of Bath , 1769 - 1847 The Saltarello, with a view of the Colosseum, Rome oil on canvas, unframed

signed and dated l.r.; T.Barker Senr./ Pinxt. 1800 , and inscribed on a label, verso; A scene within the walls of Rome/ with ? dancing the Saltarello/ on a Festal Day before the Monastery/ of St. Pietro Montano -/ Painted by Thos Barker in the year/ 1800 & sold to Mr Bush of Doctors'/ Commons for 400 guineas now in/ the possession of Geo Fuller Esqre/ of Weston Lane. Bath oil on canvas, unframed

measurements note 122 by 176 cm., 48 by 69 1/4 in.

Manchester, Art Treasures, 1857, no. 416 (lent by Joseph Dingwall)

Bought from the artist by Mr Bush of Doctor's Commons for 400 gns;
George Fuller, Weston Lane, Bath;
Joseph Dingwall, by 1857;
W.R. Pettigrew;
his sale, Christie's London, 8th February 1929, lot 61

Barker travelled to Rome with the engraver John Hibbert in 1791, with the backing of his patron Charles Spackman, the wealthy Bath coach builder. In Rome he became a close associate of John Flaxman, and the two were both members of the Society of English Art Students, a dining club which met on the first Saturday of the month. During his stay Barker filled numerous sketchbooks, persisting "in going out to sketch in the mid-day sun, until he was disabled by a 'coup de soleil'". Returning to England in December 1793 Barker presumably worked up the present painting, which is dates 1800, from these original plein air sketches executed whilst in Rome. The viewpiont is taken from the southern slopes of the Esquiline Hill, not far from the site of ruins of Nero's Domus Aura, overlooking the Colosseum, with the Monastery of San Pietro in Vincoli on the right.