From the National Gallery: The inscription in Italian on the back of the original canvas states that the picture was painted in London in 1754 for the artist’s patron Thomas Hollis, and that the view was unique in the artist’s work. The Rotunda in Ranelagh Gardens, Chelsea, was erected as a public venue for various entertainments in 1741 and closed in 1803. Musical concerts were held and Mozart performed there in 1764.

Rome: Ruins of the Forum, Looking Towards the Capitol by Canaletto, 1742. Rome is a fascinating place to study in terms of its changing appearance and how it has needed to work around the display and layout of the ancient ruins found across the city, (I have just completed a university module on this exact topic!) I believe the foreground structure is what is left of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, with the colonnade in the middle ground belonging to the Temple of Saturn. At the very end of the picture plane, creating the majority of the skyline shape, is the Palazzo Senatori. This building borders the south end of the Piazza del Campidoglio located at the summit of the Capitoline Hill, (the current appearance of the square is the design of Michelangelo). It is fair to say that some of the figures in this piece could be identified as tourists in the way they seem to admire the ruins as though they have never seen them before. This could therefore indicate that they may be part of the Grand Tour, which was a European excursion for the wealthiest men in Britain and Europe that involved a substantial amount of time studying the art and classical architecture of the city of Rome.