Skip to main content

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • The Collection
  • Projects & Publications
  • Past Exhibitions

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Image

Previous 1 / 1 Next

Giovanni Battista Lusieri

The Baths of Caracalla from the Villa Mattei, 1781

Description

Maker

  • Giovanni Battista Lusieri, ca. 1755-1821, Italian

Title

The Baths of Caracalla from the Villa Mattei

Year

1781

Medium

Watercolor on laid paper

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • watercolor

Supports

  • paper

Dimensions

46 x 64.8 cm (18 1/8 x 25 1/2 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Inscribed in pen and ink on old mount, LL:"Titta Lusier 1781" Inscribed in ink on verso: "Veduta delle Terme di Caracalla presa dalla Villa Mattei sul Monte Celio"

Type

  • Works on Paper,
  • Drawings and Watercolors

Credit

Museum Purchase: Anonymous gift

Object Number

57.098

Projects & Publications

Publications

Expanding Horizons Giovanni Battista Lusieri and the Panoramic Landscape

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Pilgrims of Beauty

February 3 - July 8, 2012

This depiction of the Baths of Caracalla exhibits the remarkable size, precision, and variety of detail that made Giovanni Battista Lusieri’s watercolors prized among late-18th-century Grand Tourists. Potential buyers of this work likely identified with the fashionable spectators in the foreground, who stroll casually through the Renaissance-era formal gardens of the Villa Mattei to observe the ancient Roman ruins nearby. These private gardens had originally been opened for religious pilgrims visiting nearby basilica churches, but by Lusieri’s day the gardens were a social playground for wealthy tourists. Such patrons prized the highly detailed character of this painting, which reinforced and recorded the knowledge they gained as they explored Italy’s historical and artistic treasures.

Italian Art in Celebration of Rhode Island’s Italian Festival; Seven Centuries of Italian Art

April 12 - May 21, 1967

Italian Drawings from the Museum's Collection

March 17 - April 16, 1961

The Age of Canova

November 6 - December 15, 1957

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is The Baths of Caracalla from the Villa Mattei with the accession number of 57.098. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

RISD Museum

  •  Facebook
  •  Twitter
  •  Instagram
  •  Vimeo
  •  Pinterest
  •  SoundCloud

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Secondary

  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use