Architectural Fantasy with the Arch of Titus and Trajan’s Column

LORENZO BELLOTTO (1740-1770)
Italy, circa 1760
oil on canvas, sculpted and gilt oak frame
Lorenzo Bellotto worked with his father Bernardo Bellotto, specialising in views of Rome. In this architectural fantasy, he set Trajan’s Column and the Arch of Titus, two of ancient Rome’s most august vestiges, in an imaginary landscape.
His father and Canaletto painted similar scenes but Lorenzo Bellotto’s palette of colder colours accentuates the improbability of such an amalgam.

inv. PE 113