Carlo Labruzzi

The tomb of Caecilia Metella is located on the Via Appia, approximately three miles outside of Rome. It was built in the 1st century BC to commemorate the life of Caecilia Metella, the daughter of a Consul and prominent member of the Roman elite.

The mausoleum, which was fortified in the middle ages, was much celebrated by artists in the seventeenth century, for whom ruins symbolised a romantic vision of the glorious past. One such artist was Carlo Labruzzi, a native of Rome who became popular with the travelling British upper class in Italy. In 1789, antiquarian and grand tourist Sir Richard Colt Hoare (1750–1838) invited Labruzzi to join him on a tour of the Appian Way, commissioning him to make drawings and paintings of the ancient tombs and villas. A number of these are preserved in an album in the British Museum. The present painting can be associated with an unfinished watercolour by Labruzzi that was with Simon Dickinson in 2012.¹

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¹ https://www.simondickinson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Labruzzi-Catalogue-2012.pdf