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Lot Essay
The Colosseum in Rome was the quintessential ruin, symbolic of how great the fall had been of the Roman Empire. Built by Emperor Vespasian and opened in AD 80, this huge arena - an oval over 600 feet long, 500 feet wide and nearly 200 feet high - accommodated up to 50,000 spectators and was described as the Eighth Wonder of the World by the poet Martial. It could be flooded for naval battles or transformed into jungles or deserts when gladiators fought wild animals, and was the place where Christians were fed to the lions. When the Roman Empire's power waned, Goths overran and sacked Rome, leaving a small population that could not maintain, and had little need for, Ancient Roman structures and systems, which fell into decay. In later centuries Roman remains, including the Colosseum, were used as quarries for building stone, especially marble, to construct churches and Renaissance palaces.
Early in the eighteenth century the Colosseum was consecrated as a site of Christian martyrdom and became a place of pilgrimage. Stations of the Cross were erected round the arena, with a tall black cross in the centre; pilgrims could gain a special Indulgence by kissing the cross. David Roberts has captured both this contemporary sacred function of the Colosseum and the awesome scale of the Ancient Roman structure in his painting, as well as the mysterious and fascinating quality of ruins being reclaimed by nature. His choice of dawn adds great drama to the scene, bathing the ruins in warm light and a shot red that evokes the bloodthirsty history of the place.
Roberts had stayed in Rome during the winter of 1853, on his second visit to Italy. Since 1825 he had made regular trips to Europe, in search of interesting subjects for pictures, and made numerous sketches that served as raw material for watercolours and oils back in his London studio. The present oil is based on a pencil and watercolour study drawn on the spot in the Colosseum across two sketchbook pages.1 According to his son-in-law, Henry Sanford Bicknell, Roberts 'was painting a small picture' of the Colosseum 'at the time of his death' in 1864, 'intending to paint the same subject large'. Roberts had written to him on 24 November 1863 saying that he was completing four paintings he had been working on for some time and longed 'to begin something new, one of the first to be the Colosseum, which you and others have so often urged me to try my "canny" hand on'. Bicknell noted that Roberts 'found some difficulty in making' the subject 'compose pleasantly'. Whether Roberts began a larger version is unknown.
The subject had appeal for lovers of sublime ruins but also the collectors of church interior views that were very popular among Victorians. Charles Dickens summed up the dual interest of the Colosseum, and the image captured by Roberts, in his Letters from Italy (1846): 'To see it crumbling there, an inch a year its corridors open to the day young trees of yesterday, springing up on its ragged parapets, and bearing fruit to see its Pit of Fight filled up with earth, and the peaceful Cross planted in the centre is to see the ghost of old Rome It is the most impressive, the most stately, the most solemn, grand, majestic, mournful sight, conceivable. Never, in its bloodiest prime, can the sight of the gigantic Coliseum, full and running over with the lustiest life, have moved one heart, as it must move all who look upon it now, a ruin. GOD be thanked: a ruin!'
During the 1870s, when Rome became the capital of the new unified Italy, the Colosseum was cleared of vegetation, which had included over 420 different plant species, and archaeological excavations began of the arena. The cross and Stations of the Cross were removed, and the cellars and sewers below the arena exposed, as they remain today. The magnificently picturesque scene, which had inspired so many artists and had been painted by Roberts, disappeared forever.
1 Private collection, exhibited Barbican 1986, no. 189
We are grateful to Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.
Early in the eighteenth century the Colosseum was consecrated as a site of Christian martyrdom and became a place of pilgrimage. Stations of the Cross were erected round the arena, with a tall black cross in the centre; pilgrims could gain a special Indulgence by kissing the cross. David Roberts has captured both this contemporary sacred function of the Colosseum and the awesome scale of the Ancient Roman structure in his painting, as well as the mysterious and fascinating quality of ruins being reclaimed by nature. His choice of dawn adds great drama to the scene, bathing the ruins in warm light and a shot red that evokes the bloodthirsty history of the place.
Roberts had stayed in Rome during the winter of 1853, on his second visit to Italy. Since 1825 he had made regular trips to Europe, in search of interesting subjects for pictures, and made numerous sketches that served as raw material for watercolours and oils back in his London studio. The present oil is based on a pencil and watercolour study drawn on the spot in the Colosseum across two sketchbook pages.
The subject had appeal for lovers of sublime ruins but also the collectors of church interior views that were very popular among Victorians. Charles Dickens summed up the dual interest of the Colosseum, and the image captured by Roberts, in his Letters from Italy (1846): 'To see it crumbling there, an inch a year its corridors open to the day young trees of yesterday, springing up on its ragged parapets, and bearing fruit to see its Pit of Fight filled up with earth, and the peaceful Cross planted in the centre is to see the ghost of old Rome It is the most impressive, the most stately, the most solemn, grand, majestic, mournful sight, conceivable. Never, in its bloodiest prime, can the sight of the gigantic Coliseum, full and running over with the lustiest life, have moved one heart, as it must move all who look upon it now, a ruin. GOD be thanked: a ruin!'
During the 1870s, when Rome became the capital of the new unified Italy, the Colosseum was cleared of vegetation, which had included over 420 different plant species, and archaeological excavations began of the arena. The cross and Stations of the Cross were removed, and the cellars and sewers below the arena exposed, as they remain today. The magnificently picturesque scene, which had inspired so many artists and had been painted by Roberts, disappeared forever.
We are grateful to Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.