An ideal Roman landscape, oil on canvas (original canvas), 20.5 x 34 cm, probably in the original, Roman Salvator Rosa frame from the Colonna collection

Verso label from the Colonna collection of Gioeni Rospigliosi.

Provenance:
coll. Filippo III Colonna (1760-1818), 12th Principe e Duca di Paliano, Palazzo Colonna, Rome;
by inheritance to Donna Margherita Colonna Gioeni (1786–1864), 9th Principessa di Castiglione, married to Don Giulio Cesare Rospigliosi (1781–1859), 6th Principe and 6th Duca di Zagarolo;
private collection, Rome (after 1864);
Galerie Alexandre Imbert, Rome;
English aristocratic ownership.

Certificate:
Professor Giancarlo Sestieri.

Andrea Locatelli is rightly seen as one of the most important exponents of Roman landscape painting of the 1st half of the 18th century. This excellently preserved work, which continues the tradition of the heroic landscapes by Lorrain and Dughet, originates from the important collection amassed by the Colonna family at the eponymous palace in Rome. Unpublished to date, the painting is an extraordinary example of the art of Locatelli. Based on the documented inventory mark featured on other works in the Colonna and Rospigliosi collections, the picture can be traced back to the 18th century. The Colonnas commissioned many works directly from their protégé artists, such as van Bloemen, van Lint and Locatelli, which is supposed also to have been the case with this picture.