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Lot Essay
Hendrik Frans van Lint is most celebrated for his topographical views, principally, those representing Rome and the Roman Campagna. A so-called vedutista, he was one of a considerable number of Northern artists living and working in Italy at the beginning of the 18th century. He was born in Antwerp, the son of the painter Peter van Lint, and was briefly apprenticed to Pieter van Bredael before travelling to Rome in 1710. There, the young van Lint became a member of a society of Netherlandish painters, the Schildersbent. While in Rome van Lint encountered Gaspar van Wittel, in whose studio he may have worked for a period.
Van Lint’s meticulous technique seemingly earned him the sobriquet ‘Lo Studio’. In this characteristically bucolic veduta, men and women mingle with animals among the ruins of the Roman forum, which, from the end of the 16th century, was termed the Campo Vaccino owing to the plethora of cattle and other livestock that grazed there and would continue to do so until the of the middle of the 19th century. Figures mount the steps of the former church of Santa Maria Liberatrice. Onorio Longhi’s 1617 baroque façade was devised to emulate the exterior of the church of the Gesù, designed by Giacomo della Porta. Della Porta was also responsible for the fountain, seen at the centre of the composition, which incorporates a large Roman basin found near Arco di Settimo Severo. The church stood at the foot of the Palatine Hill until the beginning of the 20th century, when it was demolished to make way for archaeological excavations. Behind the church can be seen the Farnese gardens. To the right rise three columns and the vestiges of an entablature: all that remain of the temple erected in the 5th century BC in honour of Castor and Pollux, the twin sons of Jupiter.
Van Lint’s meticulous technique seemingly earned him the sobriquet ‘Lo Studio’. In this characteristically bucolic veduta, men and women mingle with animals among the ruins of the Roman forum, which, from the end of the 16th century, was termed the Campo Vaccino owing to the plethora of cattle and other livestock that grazed there and would continue to do so until the of the middle of the 19th century. Figures mount the steps of the former church of Santa Maria Liberatrice. Onorio Longhi’s 1617 baroque façade was devised to emulate the exterior of the church of the Gesù, designed by Giacomo della Porta. Della Porta was also responsible for the fountain, seen at the centre of the composition, which incorporates a large Roman basin found near Arco di Settimo Severo. The church stood at the foot of the Palatine Hill until the beginning of the 20th century, when it was demolished to make way for archaeological excavations. Behind the church can be seen the Farnese gardens. To the right rise three columns and the vestiges of an entablature: all that remain of the temple erected in the 5th century BC in honour of Castor and Pollux, the twin sons of Jupiter.