The Art of Rome: A Timeline of the City's History

The city of Rome has a long and storied history, dating back thousands of years. Rome was once the capital of an empire that stretched across much of Europe and the Mediterranean. The city has been home to many different cultures over the centuries, and this is reflected in the artworks from Rome in The Metropolitan Museum. There are artworks from the city's earliest days up through the present day, documenting the changing face of Rome over time.

Imaginary Landscape with the Palatine Hill from Campo Vaccino

    This painting is a capriccio.
    It was painted after Boucher's return to Paris from Italy.
    It is a fanciful depiction of the rustic countryside around Rome.

A Section of the Via Sacra, Rome (The Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian)

    Eckersberg produced a series of urban prospects in Rome between 1813 and 1816.
    These studies were painted in repeated sittings before the motif in order to faithfully reproduce the effects of the Mediterranean sun on architectural ensembles.
    This frieze-like view depicts the fourth-century Temple of Romulus and Remus, which forms the vestibule of the sixth-century Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian.

A Roman Landscape with Figures

    German by birth, Wals was a key figure in the generation of Northern painters who took the Roman countryside, with its ancient monuments and ruins, as their subject.
    These artists, Claude Lorrain most notable among them, made drawings from nature.
    Wals specialized in small-scale paintings, translating his drawings into highly evocative paintings that rarely have an identifiable narrative.

View on the Quirinal Hill, Rome

    Denis set up his easel on the upper story of a palazzo on Rome's Quirinal Hill.
    His intention was not merely to depict the urban topography.
    Facing north by northwest, the view beckoned to be painted in the afternoon to take full advantage of the shadows that heighten the counterpoint between the curve in the cityscape and the dome of the sky.

View of the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine from the Palatine

    This work straddles the boundary between a sketch and a finished painting.
    Key monuments are shown as fragments of a compositional whole that is equal parts natural and urban, ancient and modern.
    In the foreground, the broken contours of a grassy row of arches playfully anticipate the forms of the architecture beyond.