BELLOTTO, LORENZO

PIAZZA ROTONDA WITH PANTHEON

Signature and date bottom, centre: Canaletti Fecerunt/A.1769

Together with the Pushkin Museum canvas (Inv. No. 1517) this was part of a series of compositions now scattered amongst various collections.

This picture is an interesting example of the collaboration, confirmed through their signatures, of Bernardo Bellotto and his son Lorenzo. The view of the square opens from the south-east side. In the centre is a fountain with an Egyptian obelisk and to the right of it can be seen the building of the Pantheon. On the right is the building of the Crescenzi Palace. In the foreground there is a restaurant and a bazaar. In the distance the area of the square is framed by houses.

Provenance: held in the Royal Gallery of Stanisław August Poniatowski; held in Józef Poniatowski's own collection (Warsaw) after 1798; held in the personal collection of Countess Maria Tereza Tyszkiewicz (Warsaw) after 1813 – the four last mentions of the picture in Polish collections relate to 1819; subsequently it was held in Russia; later held in the collection of E.A.Naryshkina, née Kurakina at the Stepanovskoye-Volosovo estate; transferred from there to the State Tretyakov Gallery in 1918; in the Pushkin Museum since 1924.