The Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano, Rome

This unusual view is taken from the corner window of the Hospital of San Giovanni commissioned by Pope Urban VIII in 1636. The small arches of the Aqueduct of Claudius are just visible on the far left side of the composition. The start of the road to Santa Maria Maggiore, the Via Merulana today, can be seen further up on the left. Beyond, the row of low houses mark the edge of the gardens of the Villa Giustiniani, whose Cypress trees and Pines can be seen behind the houses. The building of the Scala Santa stands in the distance with the facade and campanile of Santa Croce discernible to its right. The central part of the view is taken up by the west facade of the Lateran Palace, commissioned by Pope Sixtus V and completed in circa 1590 to designs by Domenico Fontana. In the middle of the Piazza stands the antique Egyptian obelisk transported from the Circus Maximus in 1588; the fountain at its base was built between 1603 and 1607. The Loggia of the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano stands to the right of the Palazzo with the baptistery (both largely unchanged today) on the far right of the view.
The present picture corresponds with a composition by Vanvitelli of which four versions are known, all with different figures (see G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel, Milan, 1996, pp. 164-5, nos. 86-9).