A Panoramic View of Rome from the Gardens of the Villa Mellini on Monte Mario
‘A Panoramic View of Rome from the Gardens of the Villa Mellini on Monte Mario’ is a watercolor by Giovanni Battista Lusieri, who was highly popular for his precise topographical landscapes. It was acquired by a Private Collection from Nicholas Hall.
Signature
signed: ‘Titta Lusier f.’ (on the mount)
Provenance
Private collection, United States
with Nicholas Hall, New York by 2024
acquired from the above by a private collection
Essay
This watercolor depicts a panoramic view from Villa Mellini on the Monte Mario, with the city of Rome unfolding in the distance. It is a spectacular example by the Roman-born artist Giovanni Battista Lusieri, whose meticulously precise topographical drawings made him one of the most well-sought-after artists working in Italy at this time. From this viewpoint atop Monte Mario, Lusieri illustrates many identifiable Roman monuments, including the Porta del Popo, the Quirinal, the Colosseum, and the Pantheon. The Vatican, Castel Sant’Angelo, and Saint Peter’s punctuate the city skyline, alongside the domed church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini and the gardens of Villa Doria Pamphilij. The depiction of these monuments framed by verdant foliage and serenely relaxed figures in the foreground made this watercolor, alongside other works typical of Lusieri’s oeuvre, highly coveted by Grand Tour travellers who visited Italy.
Described by Byron in 1810 as a ‘painter of the first eminence’, Lusieri was one of the most influential view painters working in Italy in the late 18th-century, alongside artists such as Jakob Philipp Hackert and Abraham-Louis Rodolphe Ducros. His astonishingly accurate depictions of Rome, Naples, and their surroundings were the result of his painstaking technique, based on detailed underdrawings and enhanced by coloring which was done in-situ, built up by several layers of pure watercolor with a rich intensity without parallel in this medium. This slow process meant that he left many works unfinished, and the demand for his work resulted in several compositions such as the present one existing in multiples, with small variations in the figures and foliage in the foreground.
There are three other known watercolors by Lusieri depicting this vista, all with similar dimensions. One undated work formerly in the collection of the Earl of Elgin at Broomhall, another now in the collection of the Akademie der Bildenen Künst, Vienna, that is signed and dated ‘Titta Lusier 1783’, and a third sold at Sotheby’s, London, 13 December 2007, lot 220, signed and dated ‘Tito Lusier 1779’. The version formerly located at Broomhall, which does not include figures, is likely Lusieri’s master copy of this scene which he would have used as a reference for the later iterations. The Vienna composition was almost certainly commissioned by Graf Anton von Lamberg-Sprizenstein, the Austrian Ambassador at the Bourbon Court, who donated it to the Akademie in 1822. These are some of Lusieri’s earliest known works, and the present example is the only one to feature the fruit seller in the foreground. Lusieri executed similar watercolor dated to ca. 1778-79, which depicts the view of the Tiber Valley towards the north from Monte Mario. This work was commissioned by Philip Yorke, later 3rd Earl of Hardwicke, during his travels to Italy and remained with his descendants until it sold at Christie’s, London, 5 July 2022, lot 26.
Giambattista Lusieri was born in Rome on 14 October 1754, and while little is recorded of his early training, he was almost exclusively a painter in watercolor. He moved to Naples in 1782, making this grouping of four views from Monte Mario possibly some of his final works executed in Rome, apart from the Vienna version, which was completed after he relocated. In Naples, Lusieri’s renown continued to grow, and his appeal to British Grand Tourists led Sir William Hamilton to recommend him as the artist to accompany Lord Elgin on his journey to Greece and Turkey. Lusieri joined Elgin in 1799, travelling to Constantinople and then Athens where he remained for 22 years before his death in 1821. As emissary to Elgin, Lusieri negotiated the purchase of the Parthenon Marbles from the Turkish authorities. The trademark panoramas Lusieri executed while in Greece were tragically lost at sea when the Cambrian, the ship carrying almost all his works from his time with Elgin, was wrecked in 1828. Therefore, apart from a select few watercolors given as gifts or shipped ahead of the Cambrian, the watercolors Lusieri created during his time in Rome and Naples remain the works on which his fame now rests.
After Lusieri’s death, Elgin purchased a portfolio of approximately 140 landscapes from the artist’s heirs, including one variant of this view from Monte Mario. These watercolors remained in the Elgin family’s collection at Broomhall until the mid-twentieth century, when many were sold at Christie’s London, 6 July 1965. An additional twenty, including the aforementioned panoramic view of Rome, were sold at Sotheby’s, London, 30 June 1986. These sales are credited for the modern rediscovery of Lusieri and his work. More recently, the 2012 exhibition Expanding Horizons: Giovanni Battista Lusieri and the Panoramic Landscape and its accompanying catalogue by Aidan Weston-Lewis further propelled the artist from comparative obscurity and recentered his work at the heart of 18th-century Italy and the Grand Tour.
Updated in July 2024