Vue de Rome: Le Palatin

These prints, whose designs were previously attributed to Jacques Callot, show the degree to which depictions of Rome often still deviated from topographical fidelity, even at midcentury. The first of these views is probably taken from near the Castel Sant’Angelo; what is likely one of its bastions, surmounted by the papal coat of arms, rises at right. Faucheux identifies the church just left of center as San Girolamo degli Schiavoni, and notes the two towers of Santissima Trinità dei Monti, which stands atop the Spanish Steps, rising above the blocklike arcaded palace at left. The second view seems to include the Palatine Hill, with the church of Santa Francesca Romana and the ruins of the Basilica of Constantine. Silvestre conveys the emptiness and the wildness of the Roman forum at this time; however, all of the specific monuments are to some degree misinterpreted, misplaced, and distorted, which indicates that he likely drew his scene from memory after his return to France.

(Andrew C. Weislogel, “Mirror of the City: The Printed View in Italy and Beyond, 1450–1940,” catalogue accompanying an exhibition organized by the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, curated by Andrew C. Weislogel and Stuart M. Blumin, and presented at the Johnson Museum August 11–December 23, 2012)