Jan Frans van Bloemen, called l'Orizzonte

Probably painted for Elisabetta Farnese (1692-1766), Queen of Spain, in circa 1735-36;
Mazzarella Farau collection, Rome, 1974;
Private collection, Rome;
From whom acquired in 2006.

A. Busiri Vici, Jan Frans Van Bloemen Orizzonte e l'origine del paesaggio romano settecentesco, Rome 1974, cat. no. 53, reproduced, a detail reproduced in color p. 151, fig. 179.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work has an Italian lining which is actively supporting the paint layer. The painting is clean and the restorations are mostly well matched and effective. There are no visible signs of abrasion. The sky is certainly in good and healthy condition. The retouches in the sky are mainly on the left and in a few spots around the lightning bolts. Many if not most of the colors in the landscape are very healthy and show very little restoration. Retouches are faintly visible under ultraviolet light throughout the darkest colors of the landscape, but these are applied to isolated spots with no particular concentration. These are certainly not an indication of any weakness. The retouches may be slightly discolored in the water above the waterfall in the foreground. The varnish shows a few scuffs in the upper left, but otherwise the work can be hung as is.
"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."

This magnificent scene of the Roman campagna is impressive not only for its scale and dramatic composition, but also for the consistently high quality one finds throughout the painting. Busiri Vici rightly stated that the main protagonists of Van Bloemen’s landscapes are the trees, the natural elements which he so vividly portrays, rather than any of the figures that populate them, and this is one of the most significant examples in his œuvre. The artist has created a convincing sense of depth by drawing us into the landscape through a river placed in the centre foreground. The men and women resting on its banks act as repoussoir figures and the eye is immediately led to the hills beyond where the real focus of the painting is: a bolt of lightning has just struck a hill-top and a fire is just breaking out beside a farmhouse that the bolt narrowly missed.

In this, as in other Arcadian landscapes painted by the artist, Van Bloemen shows his skill in rendering different atmospheric effects. We sense the storm moving swiftly over the landscape, the storm-clouds being driven by a wind which bends trees under its force. The bolt of lightning in the centre of the painting is a motif which recurs in other paintings by Van Bloemen, but never on the same scale or with the same dramatic emphasis as it does here: compare, for example, his Stormy landscapes in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome, and Galleria Sabauda, Turin;¹ or the small copper tondo in a Roman private collection.²

This work is likely to be identifiable with a painting recorded in a letter, dated 14 January 1736, sent by Van Bloemen to the architect Filippo Juvarra in Madrid. The artist talks of four paintings he was working on for Elisabetta Farnese (1692-1766), second wife of Philip V and Queen of Spain, all of which measure seven by ten palmi romani (approx. 156 by 223 cm.). A pair of vertical format (showing Villa Medici with antique vases) and another horizontal pair: “…gli altri due sono per traverso l’uno rappresenta gli Orti Farnesiani, con tutta la veduta di Campovaccino di Roma, l’altro rappresenta la gran cascata di Tivoli”.³ The former is to be identified with the painting belonging to the Gruppo Ferruzzi and sold, Milan, Sotheby's, 8 June 1994, lot 268, which is of very similar dimensions to the present work (172 by 247 cm).⁴ Van Bloemen goes on to say that he wishes them to be hung in the Palacio Real and that he would like to be paid a sum of 300 scudi Romani for each pair, given the effort he has put into them (“quadri che mi costano una lunga fatica”). Pascoli, in his biography on the artist written shortly afterwards, mentions only two paintings for the Queen of Spain and records only the Farnese-related subjects, but Van Bloemen’s letter should be taken as firm evidence: the fact that paintings on such a large scale, particularly of Tivoli, are rare in his work, makes an identification with the Farnese painting more than likely.

1. Busiri Vici, under Literature, cat. nos. 22 and 340, both reproduced.
2. Ibid., cat. no. 105, reproduced.
3. Ibid., pp. 228-9, doc. no. 3.
4. Ibid., cat. no. 211, reproduced figs. 10, 33, 34 and 190).