Please enable JavaScript in your browser.

The Clivus Scauri in Rome

The Clivus Scauri in Rome

Object type Drawing
Genre Ruins
Date 1594
Dimensions 26.2 x 20.4 cm
Support Paper
Medium Pen and bistre
Signature "Gio Breughel fect Roma 15 - Novembs : 1594 / Therma(e) Diocletianes"
Signature location verso
Further inscription "Den Fluweele Brúegel ft" (18th ce?); Verso, hand of collector Esdaile: "John Call'd velvet Brueghel / ex collect. Lord hampdens WE"; "3191" and "Pr Breughel"
Our attribution Jan Brueghel the Elder
Other authorities Bailey/Walker cat. #PARI.LC.2
Location Paris, France
Collection Fondation Custodia (Collection Frits Lugt)
Accession numbers inv. #7879
Tags Ruins, Landscape
Sotheby's 1962-63, p. 31 (repr.)
Florence 1966-67, nr. 20, pl. XI
Gelder 1967, pl. 27
Chiarini 1966, p. 436
Bodart 1970, vol. 1, p. 245-8
London/Paris/Bern/Brussels 1972, nr. 12, p. 15-7, pl. 21
Winner 1972, p. 129
Winner in Brussels 1980, p. 211, nr. 150
Bedoni 1983, p. 35
Ruby 1997, p. 43f
Los Angeles/The Hague 2006-07, p. 8, fig. 6
Ruby in Munich 2013, p. 41, nr. 93
Florence 1966-67, nr. 20
London/Paris/Bern/Brussels 1972, nr. 12
Brussels 1980, nr. 150
Amsterdam 1987, under nr. 86
Munich 2013, nr. 93
18th century to 19th century England Lord John Hampden
Jun 9 1827 to Jun 27 1827 London His Sale, Sotheby's, Lot #28
18th century to 19th century London William Esdaile (Lugt 2617)
London T. Ellis
Mar 12 1963 His Sale, Sotheby's, Lot #67
20th century Paris Frits Lugt (Lugt 1028)
1963 Paris Acquired by Institut Neerlandais
Christine Liu
November 2, 2013

This brick-arched street that ran from the Piazza SS. Giovanni e Paolo to the Via di S. Gregoria would provide a backdrop for mythological scenes and allegories throughout Jan’s career.

E.A. Honig
August 3, 2014

There are numerous other drawings of this same site by other Northern artists: Willem van Nieulandt, Sebastiaen Vrancx, Tobias Verhaecht. Ruby suggests that they were all working from, or inspired by, a lost drawing by Matthijs Bril. See Ruby in Munich 2013, p. 41 and note 25.