A capriccio view of the ruins of the Colosseum, Rome, populated with pilgrims gathering around altars

Desprez executed two other views of the Colosseum, one in the Gothenburg Museum, Sweden, and the other in the Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, N.G. Wollin, Desprez en Italie, Malm, 1935, figs. 204-5. The three drawings all show religious processions in the Colosseum, but they vary in the quantity and placement of the figures. The present drawing is the one with the largest numbers. Desprez added some vegetation in the foreground and increased the lighting coming from the right.
The Colosseum became a place of pilgrimage in 1750, when Pope Benedict XIV dedicated it to the Christian martyrs. A cross was built in the center and twelve altars erected around it. The drawings show pilgrims entering the Colosseum.