View of the Forum of Nerva from the Temple of Minerva, Rome

Lastman was in Rome between 1602 and 1607, and until the discovery of this drawing only one view of Rome was known from his journey: the View of the Palatine in a private collection in Cologne (P. Schatborn, Drawn to Warmth: 17th Century Dutch artists in Italy, Amsterdam, 2001, p. 45, fig. B). Lastman made the present drawing from the temple of Minerva, looking out towards the open space in front of the temple. This was an unusual perspective: most artists took their views from the place where the men and donkeys appear on the right of Lastman's view, looking towards the buildings that appear on the left of his sheet. Examples of this more common view survive by Cornelis Cort and Matthijs Bril (Schatborn, op. cit., p. 12) and by the so-called Mantua Master in the Heemskerck album at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Lastman looks through the columns at the side of the temple to a building with a sloping roof which encompasses part of the Forum wall and a fragment of a frieze, and which also appears on the right-hand side of Bril's drawing. The arched bridge over the lane, which forms the focus of Cort's and Bril's views, is hidden in Lastman's drawing behind the wall of the temple.

We are grateful to Peter Schatborn for confirming the attribution to Lastman on examination of the original and for his assistance in cataloguing the drawing. He plans to include the drawing in a forthcoming publication.