Painting treatment: Bellotto's Ruins of the Forum, Rome

Bernardo Bellotto (1720-80) was the nephew and pupil of the well-known eighteenth century Venetian view painter Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canale, 1697-1768). Later in his career Bellotto became equally famous for his distinctive views of cities and landscapes in Northern Italy, Austria, Germany and Poland. The National Gallery of Victoria's Ruins of the Forum, Rome dates from the earliest years of his artistic independence and demonstrates the complete absorption of his uncle's painting technique and the early employment of some of his favourite motifs and practices.

Berlotto's Ruins of the Forum, Rome before treatment (left) and after treatment (right).

 

The similarity of the two artists' techniques and subject matter has led to some debate over the authorship of several works done in the early 1740s, including this one. To confuse matters, Ruins of the Forum, Rome was based on a drawing possibly by Canaletto made 20 years earlier. However, research and close study of the painting techniques has shown that the painting comfortably fits into the group of works of Bellotto's early Italian period, and may even be one of a group of companion works.

Berlotto's Ruins of the Forum, Rome (detail)
Detail, silhouette foreground figure, after conservation treatment.

 

The painting has the dimensions of 87 centimetres by 148 centimetres. This unusual format matches only with six other major views of Rome by Bellotto, datable also to around 1743. No other works by Bellotto or Canaletto have these same dimensions, and only others by Bellotto have similar height-to-width proportions. Moreover, the six other views share many similar compositional devices and painting techniques and motifs. For example, the compositional scheme of Ruins of the Forum, Rome recalls that of The Captiol with S.Maria in Aracoeli at Petworth House, Sussex, England. The silhouette of the figures and Fountain of Marforio in the foreground are a virtual mirror image of the same in the now-lost view of the Palazzo del Quirinale. The looping and curling weeds hanging from the entablature of the three crumbling columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux are characteristic of Bellotto's painting technique and are not found in Canaletto's paintings of the period.

The painting was cleaned in 1996.

Carl Villis.
Flora McDonald Anderson, Conservator of Paintings.

 

Related information:

Ruins of the Forum, Rome (c. 1743)

 

Bernardo BELLOTTO
Italian 1721–80
worked in Germany 1761–67, Poland 1767–80
Ruins of the Forum, Rome (c. 1743)
oil on canvas
87.0 x 148.0 cm
Felton Bequest, 1919
964-3