In a letter dated 22 April 1996, Victor Carlson confirms the attribution of this drawing to Hubert Robert and dates it circa 1757-9. Victor Carlson also points out that a sheet, sold in these Rooms, 2 December 1960, lot 213, illustrated, now in the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe dated 1759, displays the same architectural elements as in the present drawing (exhibited in the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe, Die Französischen Zeichnungen 1570-1930, 1983, no. 36, illustrated). Victor Carlson considers that the present drawing predates the Karlsruhe version, and that it shows Robert's earlier style when under Piranesi and Panini's influence.
Victor Carlson notes that the general composition of this drawing is similar, in reverse, to that of Piranesi's first plate of the Prima Parte di Architetture e Prospective, the Sculpture Gallery published in 1750, John Wilton-Ely, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, San Francisco, 1994, I, pl. 4. A similar view through porticoes, though from a higher viewpoint, is in a picture by Robert of around 1763-4 now in the J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Rome, Villa Medici, J.H. Fragonard e Hubert Robert a Roma, 1990, no. 133, illustrated. Victor Carlson describes the present drawing as 'a fascinating rediscovery of a document from Robert's early years in Rome which evidences his emulation of the elaborately contrived architectural perspective construction of Piranesi.'