The Arch of Constantine, Rome

The sun rises behind the Palatine Hill in Rome, casting a honeyed glow across this scene. The triumphal Arch of Constantine dominates the composition. The Arch sits at the boundary of city and countryside. It seems to be becoming part of the landscape, overgrown with miniature versions of the trees that dot the hills behind. Yet, it has also been incorporated into this ancient Roman stronghold, nestled against a domestic building on the left within the walls that define the city’s boundary. The sunlight creates contrasts of light and shade throughout the composition, illuminating the monument’s sculptural reliefs and the townsfolk who are chatting, meandering and sketching. Built to commemorate ten years of the emperor Constantine’s (c. 280-337 CE) reign and his victory at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312, the Arch is one of the largest monuments to survive from late antiquity. Flemish artist, Herman van Swanevelt (c. 1604-55), has taken great care to accurately render the reliefs and friezes that adorn its structure. The painting shows a missing Corinthian column on the far right that was reinstated in the eighteenth century, and a roundel on the side depicting the sun god Apollo, driving a chariot with four horses. 

This painting would have been produced from sketches, which provided detailed notes of the classical decorations and memories of the Roman campagna (countryside) flooded with warm light. A formative figure in the development of a new genre of painting, the Italianate landscape style was perfected by Van Swanevelt, alongside French landscape artist Claude Lorrain (1600-82). Having travelled to Rome in 1629, he spent twelve years there, along with other Dutch artists who formed a group known as the Bentvueghels ('Birds of a Feather'). They gave each other nicknames. Van Swanevelt’s nickname translated as ‘hermit’, as he preferred to work alone. This might explain why this view has been painted from an isolated nook in the Colosseum, with one of its walls framing the composition.