Gaspar van Wittel, called Vanvitelli

Consul Joseph Smith (c. 1674-1770), Venice, and thence by inheritance to his widow Elizabeth Murray;
Acquired from the above by Patrick Home (1728-1808) in Venice, in June 1773;
Thence by family descent.

Catalogue of Paintings in Paxton House, Edinburgh 1864, p. 20, no. 58 (Rome), and p. 21, no. 64 (Florence);
J. Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy 1701-1800, New Haven & London 1997, p. 516.

The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. These two paintings both have loose linings, with fairly recent stretchers on an old model, so although it was not possible to see the inner supporting lining it feels quite firm behind the very fine original canvas. The slight wrinkling of the texture and narrow central line of an apparent vertical joint in each painting suggest the pictures were originally on fine paper, mounted on canvas perhaps when painted. View of Rome. In this painting the faint trace of the drawing of a figure can be seen near the dogs on the right where the brown of saturated paper appears to be visible. Occasional slight creases and a possible old tear on the horizon by the right edge also suggest paper. The paint in the sky was evidently rather thinner than elsewhere and seems to have been partially absorbed into the paper in places. There are various strengthening largely superficial retouchings in the sky in consequence, in contrast to the rich well preserved oil brushwork of the lower part of the painting, which is vivid and intact virtually throughout. There are just one or two rare little lost flakes, a few near the signature (although not affecting it) and in the tree to the right, with occasional small retouchings visible under ultra violet light near the signature and in two places on the path to the left of the arch of Septimus Severus and behind the pilgrim or peddler further left. However essentially despite scattered retouchings in the sky the condition is exceedingly good, with beautiful minute detail exquisitely intact and unworn, retaining the delicate atmosphere and spread of light. View of Florence. This painting has also been quite recently restored, with rather more retouching, also like the pendant mainly in the sky, particularly in the lower golden sunset streaks of light near the horizon. The city itself is finely intact in every detail, while some of the middle distance water of the Arno has some strengthening, with a few other isolated touches for instance on one arch of the bridge, and some others in the darker parts of the left foreground where there is a premature craquelure. The walls of the city have slightly darker patches apparently from uneven saturation of the underlying paper, rather than any retouching. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

These pendant views of Rome and Florence are unpublished and their appearance on the market for the first time is significant for they are an important addition to the artist's known œuvre.

The Roman view shows an unusual prospect of the Campo Vaccino; that is the area of the Forum which was used in Vanvitelli's time as a thoroughfare for pedestrians and carriages, as well as a place for cattle to roam (as its name suggests). The view clearly illustrates what lured view-painters to Rome in the 17th, 18th and ensuing centuries; namely the juxtaposition of ancient monuments with the buildings of 'modern Rome'. Two other panoramic views of this site are known but this is the earliest by a number of years and the only one in which Vanvitelli has chosen to include an artist sketching in the foreground. Of the other two versions one, signed with initials and dated 1703, is in a private collection, London; the other, unsigned, has been dated slightly later to the end of the first decade of the 18th century.¹  The Arch of Septimius Severus, which dominates the centre of the composition, obviously held a certain fascination for Vanvitelli for he made it the centrepiece in two further views of smaller dimensions; one, in vertical format, is in the collection of Count Brachetti Peretti, Rome; the other, an oval, was formerly in the illustrious Colonna collection in Rome.²  Indeed Vanvitelli studied the arch carefully for a detailed architectural drawing of it, on a sheet which has been squared for transfer of the design, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.³  The drawing concentrates on the arch itself, with a hint of the columns and buildings that surround it, and it is very likely that the sketch was done in situ and used by the artist later on for the painted variants of this view. The view comprises, from left to right: a fountain where cattle were led to be watered (just visible through the trees); the façade of the church of Santa Maria Liberatrice (now destroyed); the reddish fortified building of the Dogana della Grascia; the single free-standing column of Foca, to whom it was dedicated in 608 A.D., which would originally have been surmounted by a bronze statue of the emperor Foca; the Arch of Septimius Severus, erected in 203 A.D., whose exceedingly good state of preservation is largely due to the fact that it was enveloped by other buildings in medieval times, thus conserving its exterior.; the road leading to the church of the Consolazione, whose cupola is just visible beyond; the eight granite Ionic columns which are all that remain of the Temple of Saturn, inaugurated in 497 B.C. and one of the most venerated monuments of the Roman Republic; and to the extreme right the lower part of the ramp leading to the piazza del Campidoglio.

The view of Florence from the Cascine is altogether more rare and although three other variants of it are known, one of which is also signed, this is the only one that is ever likely to come to auction on the international market.⁴  The composition appears to be unique in Vanvitelli's œuvre for he seems to have zoomed in on the views mentioned above, cropping the composition at left and right in order to focus on the buildings themselves. The present work's pairing with a view of Rome is unusual but not unique (see below) and, given that the pictures are of identical dimensions, it must be assumed that it was at the request of a patron to own a view of each city. The view itself is taken from the right bank of the river Arno, the Cascine, and shows the Ponte alla Carraia, the bridge just left of centre, and the Ponte Santa Trinità and Ponte Vecchio just visible beyond. On the bank opposite is the cupola and campanile of the church of Santo Spirito, with the church of San Frediano in Cestello in front. Though none of the known paintings are dated, the construction of the cupola of San Frediano was completed in 1698, thus providing a terminus post quem for the dating of all four views.⁵  Once again Vanvitelli made a detailed topographical drawing from this viewpoint which, in many respects, comes closest to the present painting for it concentrates on the central portion of buildings, ending with the church of Santo Spirito at the far right.⁶  Though this and other detailed drawings of Florence clearly attest to the artist's presence in the city, the exact dates of his stay are unknown. Vanvitelli may have gone to Florence on his way to or from Lombardy, where he is documented in 1690, or – more convincingly – he may have stopped there en route to Bologna in 1694. The biographer Lione Pascoli clearly states that the artist toured Italy, and specifically travelled to Florence, prior to his marriage (which took place on 18th February 1697). Pascoli goes on to say that Vanvitelli painted two views for Ferdinando de' Medici; one, a view of Florence (as a pendant to picture by Claude), and the other, a view of Rome.⁷  The artist remained in Florence from May to October (of an undefined year) but Pascoli's account has been further substantiated by the discovery of a document, dated 26 November 1694, which notes payment to the artist for the commission, thus confirming Vanvitelli's presence in the city in that year.⁸  Indeed a view of Florence is mentioned in an inventory of 1698 and again, in 1713, after Ferdinando de' Medici's death: "A similar one on canvas measuring 1 3/4 braccia high by 2 1/4 braccia wide, painted by Monsù Gaspero Olandese [Vanvitelli] a view of the city of Florence with the river Arno, with figures on boats, and one can see a carriage drawn by six horses, with gilt wood frame".⁹  Since this description matches the present view of Florence quite closely it is tempting to assume that these two paintings may be identifiable with the Medici pair: not only is the 'pairing' of the two cities unusual but the Roman view is also dated 1695 (just after the artist's documented contact with the Medici in the summer and autumn of 1694). The presence of a Medici coat-of-arms on the right post of the bridge in A view of Florence from the Cascine (visible lower centre foreground) might also have indicated that it was a Medici commission, although the coat-of-arms also appears on another version of this view and so clearly used to adorn the bridge in the foreground. From a stylistic point of view the views of Florence and Rome appear to be contemporary, and therefore to date from 1695, though the problem remains that the cupola of San Frediano was only completed in 1698.

The paintings were once in the collection of the merchant, banker, collector and dealer Consul Joseph Smith in Venice. Upon his death in 1770 several hundred pictures and drawings passed to his second wife and widow Elizabeth Murray, whom he had married in 1757.¹⁰  In June 1773 Patrick Home travelled to Venice and acquired twenty-five paintings from her, all of which are listed in his journal, dated 16 June 1773, under 'Pictures from the widow of Joseph Smith British Consul at Venice': (no. 3) "Two Views of Rome & Florence by Vanvitelli. These views are very clever the name of their author is on them".¹¹  The pictures he purchased included twelve views and landscapes by Diedrich, Zuccarelli, Canaletto and Vanvitelli, as well as two pastel copies after Correggio.¹² Patrick Home had travelled to Italy as a young man, visiting both Florence and Rome in 1750-51, and he returned there on a Grand Tour in middle age, shortly after his marriage to Jane Graham in May 1771. Their extensively documented Italian tour lasted six years and Home devoted a great deal of time and energy to acquiring works of art for Wedderburn Castle, which was being extensively rebuilt at the time. His other home, Paxton House, had been completed before their Tour began. As well as the Veneto, where they spent much of 1773, they visited Naples, Rome, Lucca, Modena, Parma, Pisa and Florence. Given the context and timing of their trip, it is understandable that Home could not resist acquiring these two views of Florence and Rome by Vanvitelli. According to correspondance in the family archives the Smith pictures which he had bought in Venice arrived in Scotland safely but were still in their crates two years later (23 July 1775). They eventually hung at Paxton House, where they are listed in a catalogue published almost one hundred years later (see Literature). Home finally returned to England in 1778 but not in the company of his wife, who never came to Wedderburn and eventually entered a Carmelite convent in Belgium.

1.  These measure 45.5 by 74.5 cm. and 55.3 by 87 cm. respectively: see G. Briganti, eds. L. Laureati & L. Trezzani, Gaspar van Wittel, Milan 1996, pp. 151-52, cat. nos. 50 and 51, both reproduced.
2.  Briganti, op. cit., p. 152, cat. nos. 52 and 53, both reproduced. For the former see, more recently, L. Laureati, in L. Laureati & L. Trezzani, Gaspare Vanvitelli e le origini del vedutismo, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Chiostro del Bramante, 26 October 2002 – 2 February 2003, pp. 96-97, cat. no. 12, reproduced in colour.
3.  Inv. 1971 Rogers Fund, pen and ink on squared paper, 400 by 510 mm.; first published by Ann Zwollo in 1973 but more recently Briganti, op. cit., p. 382, cat. no. D276, reproduced.
4.  One, signed and on copper, is in Palazzo Pitti, Florence, inv. 1890 n. 9292; another, unsigned, is in the Colonna collection in Rome, inv. 544; and the third, also unsigned, was formerly Colonna but is now in the collection of the Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze: see Briganti, ibid., pp. 231-32, cat. nos. 270-72, all reproduced.
5. The cupola, designed by the architect Antonio Ferri, was completed in 1698 according to a 19th-century guidebook written by the architect Federico Fantozzi (Nouveau Guide de Florence, Florence 1858, French ed., p. 687); contrary to the much-cited reference by Vitzhum claiming that the cupola was built between 1698 and 1702 (W. Vitzhum, Gaspar van Wittel (1652/53-1736). Disegni dalle collezioni napoletane, exhibition catalogue, Gaeta 1980, p. 136).
6.  Caserta, Palazzo Reale, inv. 1600; ibid., p. 321, cat. no. D91, reproduced p. 320.
7.  "...prima poi che prendesse moglie, e che andasse a Napoli volle fare un giro per l'Italia...; andò primariamente a Firenze, e dipinse pel gran principe due quadri uno per accompagnare un quadro di Claudio Lorenese rappresentando il primo una veduta di Firenze, e l'altro di Roma, che non accompagnava alcuno, e vi si fermò da maggio fino a ottobre...": L. Pascoli, Vite di pittori, scultori ed architetti viventi, from MSS 1383 and 1743 in the Biblioteca Comunale Augusta of Perugia, ed. G. Briganti, Treviso 1981.
8.  M. Chiarini, "I quadri della collezione del Principe Ferdinando di Toscana", in Paragone, vol. XXVI, 1975, no. 301, p. 97, footnote 165.
9. "Un simile in tela alto br. 1 3/4, largo br. 2 1/4, dipintovi di mano di Monsù Gaspero Olandese la veduta della città di Firenze con il fiume Arno, entrovi barchette con figure, e si vede una carrozza tirata da sei cavalli, con adornam:to d'albero tutto dorato, segn:to N. 31" (inv. 9 novembre 1713, c. 28r (inv. 1698, c.20v) taken from Quadri della collezione del Principe Ferdinando de' Medici, transcribed by Chiarini, op. cit., p. 87 and p. 97, footnote 165.
10. The inventory drawn up after his death, dated 9 November 1770, lists all the contents of Smith's house in Contrà SS. Apostoli, Venice, but the descriptions - of the paintings in particular - are too generic for identification. 
11. These manuscript notes are held at The National Archives of Scotland.
12. The Canalettos' in this list are now thought to be by Bellotto and include two views of Rome which remained in the Home collection at Paxton until 1925, sold London, Christie's 7 December 2006, lot 72.