View of the Port of Ripa Grande

From 1680 van Wittel began his successful career as a landscape artist, electing contemporary Rome as the main protagonist of his productions, which were characterized by the systematic use of preparatory drawings and the execution of a large number of replicas. Among his clients were the viceroy of Naples and the most important Roman aristocratic families, including the Colonna and Sacchetti. Antique collectors such as Englishmen Lord Burlington and Thomas Coke also purchased his works. The fame of the painter of the "true" (N. Pio) was also acknowledged in academic circles, so that on May 25, 1711, presented by prince Carlo Maratti, he was elected as member of merit in the congregation of the Academy of Saint Luke.This view, dated between the 1780s and 1790s, was accessioned into the academic collection in 1753, as a consequence of the bequest of Fabio Rosa, along with its companion piece depicting a View of the Aniene before the Waterfall. Here the Tiber is represented in the end portion of its course within the city: in the foreground are the populated via Marmorata that runs along the Aventine Hill and the ruins of Rome, including the Temple of Hercules and that of Portunus, next to the harbour on the Tiber. The fulcrum of the composition is the port of Ripa Grande, recognizable by the ramps and the Customs building, beside the garden and the Pamphilj mansion, both destroyed for the construction of the college of San Michele and the embankment of the Tiber. In the foreground, the artist depicts the activities related to river operations, berthing and unloading of goods. A topographically correct record, as evidenced by comparison with the maps of the city from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the landscape can be singled out as one of the works of greatest investment by the artist (G. Briganti). [M.M.]