The Basilica of Constantine or Maxentius, Rome
Giovanni Battista Busiri (Rome 1698 - 1757)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
Unknown
Materials
Gouache on paper
Measurements
360 x 470 mm
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 267124
Summary
Gouache on paper, The Basilica of Constantine and Maxentius, Rome by Giovanni Battista Busiri (Rome 1698 -1757). A view of the Basilica of Constantine and Maxentius in the Roman Forum, with cattle and herdsman and two figures in the foreground, one standing and gesticulating, the other reclining. Giovanni Battista Busiri specialised in architectural vedute and capricci of Rome and its surroundings. Inspired by the sixteenth-century landscapes of Gaspard Dughet and Claude, his views convey a pastoral calm amid the antiquities of ancient Rome. Busiri's views were particularly sought by Grand Tourists of the 1740s; twenty-six remain at Felbrigg, acquired by William Windham in 1739-40.
Provenance
Probably one of the gouache paintings of Italian ruins by 'Del Titarelli' hanging in either the North Room or the Tea Room at Westport House, Co. Mayo, Ireland, July 1910. No. 116 in the Westport House Paintings Catalogue c.1910-1930 and by descent to Denis Edward Browne, 10th Marquess of Sligo (1908-1991), Westport House, Co. Mayo, Ireland; his sale, Christies, 4 October, 1958 (Lot 40 - part with RBF 84) purchased by Agnews for 110 guineas from whom purchased by Brinsley Ford (£127.10s.0d) and by descent to Augustine Ford. Accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Government from Augustine Ford and allocated to the National Trust for Osterley, 2023.
Makers and roles
Giovanni Battista Busiri (Rome 1698 - 1757) , artist previously catalogued as by Pietro Bianchi (Rome 1694 – Rome 1740), artist
References
Ford 1998 Brinsley Ford, John Ingamells, Francis Russell, John Christian, Nicholas Penny, Jennifer Montagu, Howard Coutts, Timothy Wilson & Dudley Dodd, The Ford Collection – II, Walpole Society, Vol. 60, 1998, pp. 91-376, p. 164 (RBF 85) Garnett 2015: Oliver Garnett, At Home with Art Treasures from the Ford Collection at Basildon Park, National Trust, 2015, p. 18