- Museum number
- Nn,1.4
- Description
-
The Palatine Hill from the steps of the Temple of Antoninus in the Campo Vaccino, formerly part of an album; oxen and carts in foreground with ruins rising up behind on hill. c.1781
Brush drawing in grey and brown wash, with watercolour and pen and grey ink, over graphite
- Production date
- 1781 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 327 millimetres
-
Width: 472 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- From album NN,01.1-25
See Nn,1.1 for information about the Towne albums as a whole.
See: Richard Stephens, 'Francis Towne's Views of Rome', British Art Journal, X, no. 3, 2010, p. 52 (repro. pl. 9), where he notes that Towne was normally disinclined to record Rome's modern buildings, people and events. He signed, inscribed and mounted this drawing as if to indicate it is complete, but he left the entire lower portion uncoloured, 'as if not wishing fully to acknowledge the cattle and farmers at work below the richly coloured and dominating Domus Tiberiana'.
Towne's view across the Campo Vaccino (Cow Pasture) towards the Palatine, taken from the Temple of Antonius and Faustina (now the church of S.Lorenzo in Miranda) shows the arched substructures of the Palace of Tiberius. The site was more fully excavated in the late nineteenth century, when the pavilion by Vignola at the corner of the Farnese Gardens which is at the left of the watercolour was demolished in 1881-2; the tower-like building was also demolished during excavations. The carts and cows in the foreground recur in old photographs of Rome until as late as the 1870s when the Campo Vaccino ceased to be a cattle market and pasture.
The following introduction was written by Richard Stephens for the 'Colosseum and the Baths of Caracalla: Christmas and early 1781' section of the Towne exhibition in 2016:
After some weeks in the countryside north of Rome, Towne's focus moved to the city's archaeological centre, where he drew the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and the Baths of Caracalla to their south.
Towne made these watercolours before he left Rome in March 1781 to visit Naples. By this point he was already contemplating a return to England, citing dissatisfaction with life abroad. His Exeter friend James White was keen to discourage him, writing to Towne that he was "in the very Country where you ought to spend as much Time as possible upon every account and where the wonders of Both Art and Nature cannot be properly and thoroughly examined in a very short time."
Although later in life Towne often made extensive revisions to the watercolours he made in Italy, especially when he came to mount them in the 1790s and 1800, few of his Roman views from these months underwent significant change. They include some of the watercolours that were to become highly regarded in the 1920s when appreciation of Towne's work was revived, especially through the researches of the collector Paul Oppé (1878-1957).
The following label was written by Richard Stephens for the Towne exhibition in 2016:
Unlike most Italian viewmakers, Towne and his fellow British artists generally ignored modern-day Rome, focusing instead on ancient monuments. From the Middle Ages, this part of the Forum was known as the Campo Vaccino (literally 'field of cattle'). Here, whilst unable to exclude the cattle and herders that gave the scene its name and much of its character, Towne nevertheless left them in an undeveloped and muted state of light grey washes.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1981 BM P&D, 'Francis Towne and John 'Warwick Smith', no cat.
2001 Sep-Dec, Mantua, Palazzo Te, 'Un paese incantato', no.17
2016, Jan-Aug, BM, 'Light, Time, Legacy: Francis Towne's watercolours of Rome' (no catalogue)
- Condition
- Laid down in original wash-lined mount.
- Acquisition date
- 1816
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- Nn,1.4
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: 1972,U.625