(Antwerp, circa 1525–1590/91)
The Colosseum in Rome with elegant figures in the foreground,
oil on copper, 28 x 37.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Germany

The present work is a capriccio, and shows Rome’s Colosseum, partially ruined, with its lower storeys half-buried by silt from the Tiber, much as it appeared in the time of Hendrick van Cleve III. However, several antique elements have been added from imagination, diffused by the so-called ‘Antwerp Romanists’ and other Northern masters active in Italy. A colossal statue (playing on the name origins of Colosseum, so-called because of the giant statue of the Emperor Nero that once stood there) has been situated in the centre of the arena by van Cleve, and appears to show a female goddess, possibly Artemis the goddess of hunting. Other Northern artists also played on these themes, such as Maerten van Heemskerck, who portrayed a fantasy statue of Zeus in his own depiction of the colosseum, part of a popularity for depicting the Seven Wonders of Ancient World in series of works that were sought after by sixteenth century collectors. To the left of the present composition, a titanic foot can be seen, along with a relief of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a she-wolf, the Lupa Capitolina.

Van Cleve was a pupil of the renowned Antwerp Mannerist painter Frans Floris and van Cleve’s many views of Rome, both real and fantastical, such as the present work, attest to a formative sojourn spent in Italy. Returning to Antwerp in 1551, Hendrick van Cleve became a master of the Guild of Saint Luke in his native city. Little else is recorded of his life, although his oeuvre is easily recognised, comprising topographical landscapes, along with the aforementioned prospects of Rome’s architecture, both ancient and ecclesiastical.