John Warwick Smith, 1749–1831, British, The Villa Medici, Rome, 1784
- Title:
The Villa Medici, Rome
- Date:
- 1784
- Medium:
- Watercolor over graphite on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper
- Dimensions:
- Sheet: 13 5/8 x 20 1/4 inches (34.6 x 51.4 cm) and Contemporary drawn border: 16 1/4 x 22 3/4 inches (41.3 x 57.8 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in black ink, lower left: "JS[in monogram] 1784"; in black ink, verso, lower center: "Villa Medici at Rome, from the Strada Babourni"
watermark: Fleur-de-Lis type
Signed and dated in black ink, lower left: "JS[in monogram] 1784"
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1977.14.4699
- Classification:
- Drawings & Watercolors
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- architectural subject | cityscape | clouds | Grand Tour | landscape | trees | villa | windows
- Associated Places:
- Italy | Rome
- Access:
- Accessible by request in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open to Yale ID holders by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details. - Link:
- https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:8246
- Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON
This watercolor, painted by Smith when he was back in London, shows the Villa Medici from the Via del Babuino, the street in which Smith was living in 1780. The villa was built for Cardinal Ricci da Montepulciano between 1564 and 1574 and was bought by Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici in 1576. Still owned by the Medici at the time of Smith's Roman visit, it was purchased by Napoleon in 1803 and became the home of the Académie Française. An undated watercolor version, acquired from the artist by the Earl of Warwick in 1781, is in the British Museum. In all but a few minor details, the Yale version replicates the earlier watercolor exactly. Another version of the composition in oils on paper by Thomas Jones is in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art. Its misunderstanding of the villa's architecture suggests that it was copied from Smith, probably from the watercolor now in the British Museum, several details of which (not present in the Yale version) it reproduces. Scott Wilcox John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, p. 267, no. 55, pl. 55, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)
John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, p. 269, no. 57, pl. 57, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)
Paul Mellon's Legacy, a passion for British art. [large print labels] , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 2, no. 57, N5220 M552 +P381 2007, Mellon Shelf (YCBA)
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