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Lot Essay
Born in Modena, Antonio Joli travelled extensively in Italy and abroad, to Germany, Spain and to England, where he would gain a reputation as a scenografo and vedutista. As a young man he went to Rome, where he studied the vedute and capricci of Giovanni Paolo Panini, under whom he almost certainly trained. By 1718 he was granted an important commission to decorate the Villa Patrizi in Rome, and by 20 April 1719 he had become a member of the Accademia di San Luca.
This view of Rome is one of Joli’s most popular compositions. Manzelli records twenty-two versions, differing in size and format and all with variations in the detail (Antonio Joli, Venice, 1999, pp. 89-93, nos. R.1-R.22). Our picture is one of the largest; indeed it is second in scale only to the picture, measuring 145 x 328.5 cm., sold in these Rooms on 9 July 1993, lot 98. 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.
The picture was acquired in the 1860s by Carl Joachim, Baron Hambro, and hung at Milton Abbey in Dorset (fig. 1). Born in Denmark, Hambro was a successful merchant banker, establishing Hambros Bank in London in 1839. In 1852, he bought Milton Abbey, the focal point of the magnificent landscape designed by Capability Brown for Lord Milton, Earl of Dorchester, from the 1760s. Hambro commissioned Sir George Gilbert Scott to restore the Abbey Church, and Milton Abbey continued to be the family home until 1932; it is now a school.
This view of Rome is one of Joli’s most popular compositions. Manzelli records twenty-two versions, differing in size and format and all with variations in the detail (Antonio Joli, Venice, 1999, pp. 89-93, nos. R.1-R.22). Our picture is one of the largest; indeed it is second in scale only to the picture, measuring 145 x 328.5 cm., sold in these Rooms on 9 July 1993, lot 98. 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.
The picture was acquired in the 1860s by Carl Joachim, Baron Hambro, and hung at Milton Abbey in Dorset (fig. 1). Born in Denmark, Hambro was a successful merchant banker, establishing Hambros Bank in London in 1839. In 1852, he bought Milton Abbey, the focal point of the magnificent landscape designed by Capability Brown for Lord Milton, Earl of Dorchester, from the 1760s. Hambro commissioned Sir George Gilbert Scott to restore the Abbey Church, and Milton Abbey continued to be the family home until 1932; it is now a school.