The Minerva Medica, Rome

This watercolour formed part of an album inscribed 'Sketches in Italy and Switzerland by Thomas Smith, 1795' which appears to have been compiled by the artist himself in 1822. During the nineteenth century it was in the possession of the Painswick historian Welbore St. Clair Baddeley (1856-1945), but it's rediscovery in 1973, and subsequent exhibition at the Albany and Manning Galleries, gave rise to a new appreciation of Smith's work.

The Minerva Medica dates from the third century and takes its name from the statue of Minerva found inside.