- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- The Temple of Vesta and the Temple of Fortuna Virilis
- Date
- 1781/06/27
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 388mm,
- image length 318mm
- Support
- laid paper watermarked with a fleur de lis within coronet design, and with a horizontal crease 150mm from the top edge of the paper
- Mount
- mounted by the artist.
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne. delt / Rome. June 27. 1781 / No45”
- in brown ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “Temple of Vesta é Tempio della Fortuna Viele [“June 27th 1781” scratched out] / Oggi Chiesa di St. Maria. / Rome Francis Towne delt.”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,1.18)
- Catalogue Number
- FT215
- Description Sources
- Author's examination of the object
Provenance
Bequeathed by the artist in 1816 to James White of Exeter (1744–1825), who gave it in 1816 to the present owner, the British Museum, London (Nn.1.18).
- Associated People & Organisations
- British Museum
- James White (1744 - 1825)
- Exhibition History
- [?] Exhibition of Original Drawings at the Gallery, No.20 Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, 20 Lower Brook Street, 1805, no. 159 as 'Temple of Vesta'
- Light, time, legacy: Francis Towne’s watercolours of Rome, British Museum, 2016
- Bibliography
- Laurence Binyon, Catalogue of Drawings by British Artists and Artists of Foreign Origin Working in Great Britain Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, Trustees of the British Museum: London, 1907, p. 201
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, pp. 43, 75, 126
- Martin Hardie, Water-Colour Painting in Britain, ed. Dudley Snelgrove, London: B. T. Batsford, 1966, p. 121
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, pp. 113-114
- Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, p. 80
Other entries in Rome Series, October 1780–July 1781
Francis Towne
Two Miles from Rome going out at the Porta Pia
Two Miles from Rome going out at the Porta Pia
Francis Towne
Part of the Ancient Roman Wall between Porta Salara and Porta Pinciana
Part of the Ancient Roman Wall between Porta Salara and Porta Pinciana
Francis Towne
Two Miles from Rome, going out at Porta Salara
Two Miles from Rome, going out at Porta Salara
Francis Towne
Near the Arco Scuro, looking into the Villa Borghese
Near the Arco Scuro, looking into the Villa Borghese
Francis Towne
A Sepulchre by the Road between Rome and the Ponte Nomentana
A Sepulchre by the Road between Rome and the Ponte Nomentana
Francis Towne
The Old Wall of Rome at the back of the Villa Medici
The Old Wall of Rome at the back of the Villa Medici
Francis Towne
St Maria Nuova with the Temple of Venus and Rome
St Maria Nuova with the Temple of Venus and Rome
Francis Towne
The Temple of Vesta and the Temple of Fortuna Virilis
The Temple of Vesta and the Temple of Fortuna Virilis
Francis Towne
Going out from the Porta Pia, looking towards the Sabine Mountains
Going out from the Porta Pia, looking towards the Sabine Mountains
Footnotes
- 1 T. Girtin and J. M. W. Turner after J. R. Cozens: The Temple of Vesta, 1790s? (www.tate.org.uk).
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Comment
The Temple of Vesta (actually dedicated to Hercules Victor) on the left and the Temple of Portunus (popularly known as the Temple of Fortuna Virilis) are a short distance south of the Tarpeian Rock and Capitol area of Rome. Giovanni Volpato and Louis Ducros featured the building from Towne’s viewpoint in their hand-coloured prints of the 1780s, and a view by John Robert Cozens, from his first visit to Rome, is also known in a Munro School copy.1