Attributed to Dirck Helmbreeker (Haarlem 1633-Rome 1696)
Figures in a Classical Landscape with Ruins c.1650-90
Oil on canvas | 92.2 x 132.2 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 405564
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Helmbreeker was a Haarlem artist who arrived in Rome when he was twenty in 1653 and stayed for the rest of his life, painting street scenes in the manner of Pieter van Laer. This pair (see also CW 64, 405564) was described as in the manner of Cerquozzi in Queen Anne’s inventory and have only recently been attributed to Helmbreeker.
Though a very probable depiction of the ruin landscape surrounding the centre of Rome during the seventeenth century, this site cannot be precisely identified. The one landmark - Bernini’s ‘Moro’ fountain - has been transposed here form its actual location in the Piazza Navona, where it was erected in 1652. Behind it appears the ruins of the Temple of Saturn, which stood in the Campo Vaccino (and still stands in what is now the excavated Forum). The message of images of this kind would seem to be the contrast between ancient grandeur and modern squalor.
The painting appears in Pyne's illustrated 'Royal Residences' of 1819, hung in the Queen's State Bedchamber at Windsor Castle (RCIN 922103).Provenance
First recorded in the collection of Queen Anne
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Creator(s)
(nationality)Acquirer(s)
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
92.2 x 132.2 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
111.2 x 150.4 x 5.3 cm (frame, external)
Category
Object type(s)
Other number(s)
Alternative title(s)
Italian peasants