The Tiber, Rome, looking downstream with the Castel and Ponte Sant'Angelo, Saint Peter's and the Vatican, Santo Spirito in Sassia and the Janiculum beyond

Details

Antonio Joli (Modena c. 1700-1777 Naples)
The Tiber, Rome, looking downstream with the Castel and Ponte Sant'Angelo, Saint Peter's and the Vatican, Santo Spirito in Sassia and the Janiculum beyond
oil on canvas
15 1/8 x 28 1/8 in. (38.4 x 71.4 cm.)
in a contemporary English carved and gilded frame

Provenance

(Presumably) Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston, and by descent through his daughter
Hon. Elizabeth Temple (d. 1837), wife of Lawrence Sullivan of Broom House, Hurlingham, to their daughter
Charlotte Sullivan, and thence by descent to her great-niece
Miss Downs.
with Sabin Galleries, London, 1961, whence acquired by the father of the present owner.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

This is one of Joli's most popular compositions. Manzelli records twenty-two versions, many differing in size and format and all with variations in the detail (M. Manzelli, Antonio Joli, Venice, 1999, pp. 89-93, nos. R.1-R.22). Joli's viewpoint is relatively low and advanced towards the bridge, enabling him to render the topography of Rome in detail. The inclusion of a Palazzo and a terrace in the lower left can be assumed to be a compositional device invented by the artist, but otherwise the view is reasonably accurate.
Hitherto unpublished, the present picture is one of the smallest of Joli's treatments of the view and in this and other respects corresponds closest to a picture with Leonard Koetser, London, 1961 (Manzelli, ibid., p. 92, no. R.14).

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