WITTEL, Caspar Andriaans van

This view of Tivoli shows the town and the river Aniene before the old waterfall. The view is taken from the left bank of the river Aniene, along the road which leads from the centre of Tivoli to the Ponte San Martino, and then out of the town towards the via Valeria. In the centre of the painting the lip of the waterfall can be made out, beyond which is an arch of the bridge and the Temple of Vesta with the bell tower of the church of San Giorgio which was built within the walls of the Roman temple. At the far right we see the Porta Sant’Angelo.

Wittel painted this view on a few other occasions.

This view shows Venice from a ship that would have been moored some one hundred and fifty metres outside the Riva degli Schiavoni. The panorama embraces the area between the Redentore, at the left on the Giudecca, and the two columns on the Molo at the far right. The entrance to the Grand Canal is located in the centre, with the Punta della Dogana and the Santa Maria della Salute to its left. Numerous boats are on the water, transporting goods, animals, and people, including one with Capuchin monks en route to the Redentore. On the left a sloop flying the Dutch flag is just being rowed out of sight. Behind it lies a large Venetian threemaster with the lion of St. Mark on its stern.

The colours are light shades of grey-green, grey-blue, pink and beige, and bright red for the flags, sails and clothing. A soft, tempered light enters the scene from the northeast at a low angle on what is evidently an early summer morning. In this scene the eye is led into the distance in the west. The vantage-point chosen by Van Wittel causes the impression of two equally wide tunnel-shaped waterways, the Canale della Giudecca being however two to three times as large as the entrance of the Grand Canal.

Moreover, the left waterway is obstructed by a merchant-man, while the small boats in front of it and the quay to the right lead the eye to the Grand Canal. The Santa Maria della Salute, almost an entity with the Dogana, seems to rise out of the water like an enormous vessel reflected in the Bacino. All the buildings are sharply focused and rendered with an almost painful precision; this is true also of the Salute, although its site lies more than seven hundred metres away. Van Wittel must have worked out the composition and its perspective construction from a great distance, and individual details at close range; this is the only possible explanation for the painting’s unlikely degree of topographical accuracy.

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All the buildings are sharply focused and rendered with an almost painful precision. Van Wittel must have worked out the composition and its perspective construction from a great distance, and individual details at close range; this is the only possible explanation for the painting’s unlikely degree of topographical accuracy.

Van Wittel, a Dutch painter, was one of the founders of the ‘veduta’ tradition (paintings of townscapes, sometimes imaginary). Apart from the vedute of Rome, which was the largest part of his work, Van Wittel also painted views of Naples and Venice, where he settled in 1697.

Caspar van Wittel created a new type of painting around 1700, the veduta, that would inspire several generations of artists in the years to come, among them Canaletto, Bellotto and Guardi. His paintings are topographical representations of cities, palaces and villas, painted with a warm palette and always including a narrative around the daily life particular to the place depicted.

The Villa Aldobrandini is situated in Frascati, to the south-east of Rome and still remains the property of the Aldobrandini family, for whom it was built in the 1500s. The villa was celebrated for its wonderful gardens and fountains. The present view is taken from the Piazza Municipale.

Caspar van Wittel created a new type of painting around 1700, the veduta, that would inspire several generations of artists in the years to come, among them Canaletto, Bellotto and Guardi. His paintings are topographical representations of cities, palaces and villas, painted with a warm palette and always including a narrative around the daily life particular to the place depicted.

The Villa Farnese in Caprarola is situated in the hills to the north of Rome. Built in several stages over the course of the 1500s, it was the brainchild of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the future Pope Paul III.

Caspar van Wittel (Vanvitelli as called in Italian) arrived in Italy in 1672, and lived and worked there until his death. He was employed principally in Rome, but also applied the interest in view painting developed there to the Venetian scene, where he drew views of the city in the 1690s, which were to form the basis of attractive works in oil.

This painting shows a partial view of the Colosseum, the largest surviving building of ancient Rome. The view is taken from the Meta Sudans, the ancient fountain of Titus (A.D. 79-81) restored under Domitian (A.D. 81-96) which stood in front of the Arch of Constantine until its destruction in 1936. There are several variants of this view with different staffage and background.

The Ponte Salario crosses the Aniene, a tributary of the Tiber, to the north of Rome and was originally built in the first century BCE. The structure seen in the present work was begun in the eighth century and extended in Medieval times before being largely demolished during the Napoleonic invasion of Italy.

This sweeping view of the Ripa Grande in Rome is a depiction of the Eternal City’s main river port, giving today’s viewers a glimpse into daily life at the end of the 17th century. The right side of the painting shows the Via Marmorata, along which marble from the quarries at Carrara was transported, while on the opposite bank are the main ramps of the port, near the Customs House, with the tower of the church of the Santa Maria in Torre behind it. Beyond this are also the Pamphilij palazzina and the church of Santa Maria in Capella, the only building in this group that remains today. Though seen far in the distance, the Capitol serves as the centrepoint of the composition.

There are two other versions of this composition in oil recorded, though unlike the present painting neither of them are signed or dated.

This sweeping view of the Ripa Grande in Rome is a depiction of the Eternal City’s main river port, giving today’s viewers a glimpse into daily life at the end of the 17th century. The right side of the painting shows the Via Marmorata, along which marble from the quarries at Carrara was transported, while on the opposite bank are the main ramps of the port, near the Customs House, with the tower of the church of the Santa Maria in Torre behind it. Beyond this are also the Pamphilij palazzina and the church of Santa Maria in Capella, the only building in this group that remains today. Though seen far in the distance, the Capitol serves as the centrepoint of the composition.

Ponte Sisto is a bridge in Rome’s historic centre, spanning the river Tiber. The present bridge was constructed between 1473 and 1479 by the architect Baccio Pontelli. It was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV (r. 1471-84), after whom it is named. Pontelli reused the foundations of a prior Roman bridge, the Pons Aurelius, which had been destroyed during the early Middle Ages.

Approximately half of Van Wittel’s Roman vedute are views either of or along the Tiber. Made at fifteen different locations, most of them were repeated at least twice, as in this case. The present view represents the southernmost point Van Wittel ever painted along the Tiber. It was taken looking towards the north from the eastern bank, opposite the Porta Portese. To the left, across the river, we can see the quay known as the Porto di Ripa Grande, with the two long stairways and the customs building, behind which the small tower of Santa Maria della Torre is just visible. Further along the same bank of the Tiber, right before the river bend, lies the Palazzina Pamphilj and its garden, obscuring the Ponte Rotto. Most of the complex was demolished in the late nineteenth century to make way for the Ospizio di San Michele, except for the customs building, which was razed in 1914—15.

The tall tower on the horizon in the middle of the composition stands on the Capitoline; to its right are the Torre delle Milizie, the dome of Santi Luca e Martina, the Quirinal and the campanile of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. On the right riverbank near the Via della Marmorata, marked by a few blocks of marble, is an array of houses of various shapes and sizes, gardens and places of work. Lying in the Tiber below, there are the remains of a bridge that has long since collapsed and, further in the distance, those of the old Ponte Sublicio. There is almost no traffic on the river. A galley and two two-masters are moored at the Porto di Ripa Grande, while some rowboats, a large, flat-bottomed barge and an impressive rowing-sloop can be noticed. Among the figures strolling on the right a few monks can be distinguished as well as a gentleman who looks rather Dutch.

This painting is a good example of Van Wittel’s ability to group all the various elements of a sweeping panorama into one harmonious and well-ordered whole. A recurrent feature in his panoramas is the plateau in the foreground or a section of a wall or a cliff, enlivened by a small group of figures. One of them, in this case the man with the oar, serves to lead the spectator’s eye into the composition. Van Wittel’s vantage-point is generally rather high, according to the traditional Dutch formula he had learned from his teacher Withoos. In the foreground the painter looks down — in this case at the men in the rowboats — and then his eye is drawn to the middle of the composition and finally into the background. The painter induces the viewer, through the guide with the oar, to revolve a quarter circle from left to right, to survey the entire panorama.

Finally, Van Wittel’s extraordinary ability to represent water, with its shifting, shimmering reflections and almost palpable wetness, should be mentioned. This effect, unequalled by any other painter, is especially characteristic of Van Wittel’s works from the early years of the eighteenth century.

Romans enjoy the shady gardens of the Villa Medici, acquired by then-Cardinal later Grand Duke, Ferdinando I de’ Medici some one hundred years before the Italianized Van Wittel painted this.

This picture is taken from the point of view of a traveller approaching the Eternal City through the area of meadows to the north-east, known as the Prati di Castello. The viewer is heading south-west along the old road leading to the Porta Angelica, which can be clearly seen on the left of the composition. Beyond the Porta Angelica can be seen the obelisk in the centre of the Piazza San Pietro, and to its right can be glimpsed the statues which adorn the top of Bernini’s famous colonnade.

The Arch of Titus was painted by Vanvitelli on several other occasions: five are on canvas, one on copper, and one is a tempera. The Arch was frequently painted by vedutisti throughout the 18th century, and many chose to portray it from this side because of the bas-relief’s better state of preservation.

Eight other small-scale variants of this painting are known.

Van Vittel (Gaspare Vanvitelli in Italy) specialized in topographically accurate views of cities. Portraits of cities and specific buildings were not new in his days, Dutch and Flemish contemporaries in Italy also made urban views. However, van Wittel was the first Italianate to concentrate on the category.

Van Wittel’s topographical views are called ‘vedute’. Although the term was used in Italy to characterize pictures of Rome and its environs long before van Wittel appeared on the scene, he is rightly credited with establishing vedute as an independent category of painting. In his time the term began to be used to characterize portrayals of other cities and their sites. Van Wittel’s own oeuvre includes some of Venice, Florence, Bologna, Naples, and other places on the Italian peninsula. Strictly speaking one can speak of vedute of Amsterdam, Paris, London, Dresden, St. Petersburg, and so forth, but customary usage confines the term to topographical views of Italy.

Van Wittel starts in Italy by following the tradition established in the sixteenth century of depicting the sights of the city in prints which culminates in the following century in Piranesi’s peerless etchings of Rome. What sets van Wittel apart from earlier printmakers of Roman urban buildings and spaces was the practice he soon began of translating his views into paint. The market for his views of the Eternal City was good. During a period of more than thirty years he produced several versions of the most important sights. His innovative sun-drenched vedute done in light tonalities had little influence in his native land but they had an enduring effect in Italy where they set examples for leading eighteenth-century Italian veduta painters including Pannini in Rome and Guardi and Canaletto in Venice.

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Van Wittel made at least two trips to Northern Italy between 1690 and 1694. He may have visited Venice more than once. He probably made there drawings from life and produced paintings based on them later in his studio in Rome. Van Wittel most likely executed dozens of views of and in Venice; the majority of them showing the city from the water. These compositions have turned into models for his Venetian successors, who were to produce comparable scenes for comparable clients.

The present canvas is the artist’s earliest dated Venetian veduta.

The Molo is the small stretch of quay in front of the Piazzetta and the government buildings that line it, including the Zecca and the Library to the left, and to the right the Ducal Palace, with the state prison beyond the Ponte della Paglia de Prigioni. Behind the columns of St. Mark and Todaro, we see the Campanile, the basilica of San Marco itself and the Torre del’Orologio, which faces onto Piazza San Marco. A catalogue of the different kind of boats is virtually displayed on the Bacino: a galley is moored to the quay in front of the Ducal Palace, not far from two lateen rigged ships. In the right foreground is another ship, its stern to the left, sporting as its figure-head a lion. There is a good deal of traffic on the water. Behind the gondola transporting people to the right a peata can be seen, to the left another peata with livestock and behind it a bragozzo.

Van Wittel repeated this view more than once, sometimes on canvases as much as two metres wide. The composition has been varied by so many artists — including Canaletto and Guardi — that it became one of the most familiar views of Venice. The concept of a frontal view of the entrance of the Piazzetta is not Van Wittel’s invention, but dates back to the sixteenth century. However, all previous versions of the theme show a much smaller segment of the quay. Van Wittel’s view emphasizes the longitude of the Molo, that seems to stretch both left and right beyond the frame. This reference to the profile-view of Venice gives Van Wittel’s composition an extraordinary tension, that is missing in the smaller versions.

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The Venetian views of Van Wittel are characterised by the accuracy in details, the topographical precision and the crystalline quality of colour.

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There are four other known versions of this picture which is a topographically accurate representation of Verona. The painting is signed on the rock lower left: GASPAR/VAN WITEL.

This canvas was part of a series of Italian views commissioned by the ninth Duke of Medinaceli, Viceroy of Naples, in around 1700. Many of the vedute are depictions of Naples and the surrounding countryside but there were also views of Venice, Florence and Rome. The present painting shows a view of Florence from the right bank of the river Arno looking towards the Ponte alla Carraia.

Van Wittel, a Dutch painter, was one of the founders of the ‘veduta’ tradition (paintings of townscapes, sometimes imaginary). Apart from the vedute of Rome, which was the largest part of his work, Van Wittel also painted views of Naples and Venice, where he settled in 1697.

The canvas depicts a view of the Tiber near the bastions of Castel Sant’Angelo. At the left is the Palazzo Altoviti and part of the Fiorentini Quay; in the background one can see the Santo Spirito bell-tower and the building of the Ospedale dei Pazzi. Visible at the right is the cupola of St. Peter’s basilica.

The painting shows the church of Santi Marcellino e Pietro, from the Vigna Ciccolini, with the Palazzo Laterano, the church of San Giovanni in Laterano, the Ospedale di San Giovanni and ruins of the Claudian Aqueduct beyond. The view is taken from a rare viewpoint, never repeated by the artist. Van Wittel reproduces the topography in characteristically accurate detail.

Opting out from the thriving market in views of Roman ruins, Van Wittel recorded Rome’s daily life. The perspective here is slightly forced to show both the Castel Sant’Angelo and the complex of Saint Peter’s and the Vatican Palace. Interestingly, Bernini’s bell towers adorn Saint Peter’s, although only one was built, and it was demolished in 1646.

This canvas was part of a series of Italian views commissioned by the ninth Duke of Medinaceli, Viceroy of Naples, in around 1700. Many of the vedute are depictions of Naples and the surrounding countryside but there were also views of Venice, Florence and Rome. The present painting shows a view of the Bay of Pozzuoli, near Naples, taken from the east, looking towards the port of Baia, with the islands of Nisida, Procida and Ischia.

Van Wittel starts in Italy by following the tradition established in the sixteenth century of depicting the sights of the city in prints which culminates in the following century in Piranesi’s peerless etchings of Rome. One of van Wittel’s etchings is a panoramic view of Piazza del Popolo, made from the top of Porta del Popolo, the main entrance to the city for travellers arriving from the north. It was based on a drawing by Cornelis Meijer (1629-1701), an illustration to Meijer’s “L’arte di restituire a Roma” (published in Rome, 1683).

The etching was retouched in pen and ink.

The Villa Farnese, also known as Palazzo Farnese or Villa Caprarola, is a mansion in the town of Caprarola in the province of Viterbo, Northern Lazio, Italy, approximately 50 kilometres (35 miles) north-west of Rome. It should not be confused with the Palazzo Farnese and the Villa Farnesina, both in Rome.

The Villa Farnese was commissioned in 1559 by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, a grandson of Pope Paul III. He selected for his architect Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, who worked on the villa at Caprarola until his death in 1573.