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Lot Essay
The prime version of this composition, a watercolour measuring 40½ x 26½ in., is in the musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, exhibited at Kenwood, Manchester and Lausanne, Images of the Grand Tour, Louis Ducros, 1748-1810, 1985-6, no.1, and illustrated on teh cover of the catalogue. Two other, of the same size as this present example, are at Stourhead, Wiltshire (bought by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, the earliest of Ducros' English patrons), and the Lugt Collection, Foundation Custodia, Paris, and another was previously at Florence Court, Co. Fermanagh (sold, Oxon Hoath, Hadlow, Kent & Kinloch House, Christie's, South Kensington, 22 September 1999, lot 588).
The Arch of Titus is the triumphal arch on the Via Sacra just to the south-east of the Forum in Rome. It was constructed shortly after the death of the Emperor Titus (b. AD 41, Emperor AD 79-81). The arch commemorates Titus' seige of Jerusalem in AD 70, which effectively terminated the Jewish War that had begun in AD 66 (the Romans did not achieve complete victory until the fall of Masada in 73). Based on the style of sculptural details, it is possible that Domitian's favored architect Rabirius, sometimes credited with the Colosseum, may have built the Arch of Titus, which has since provided the general model for many of the triumphal arches erected from the 16th century.
The Arch of Titus is the triumphal arch on the Via Sacra just to the south-east of the Forum in Rome. It was constructed shortly after the death of the Emperor Titus (b. AD 41, Emperor AD 79-81). The arch commemorates Titus' seige of Jerusalem in AD 70, which effectively terminated the Jewish War that had begun in AD 66 (the Romans did not achieve complete victory until the fall of Masada in 73). Based on the style of sculptural details, it is possible that Domitian's favored architect Rabirius, sometimes credited with the Colosseum, may have built the Arch of Titus, which has since provided the general model for many of the triumphal arches erected from the 16th century.