Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are pleased to offer this extremely detailed panoramic watercolour of St. Peter's Square and Basilica in Rome, by the artist J.Martino, who has signed the painting in the lower left hand corner. The painting is watercolour, heightened with white over black chalk.

The painting is very accurate and shows the ancient uninscribed Egyptian obelisk in the centre of the square which was erected in 1586. The Square itself, with its Tuscan Colonnades, topped by statues, was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the 1670s and features a granite fountain designed by Bernini in 1675 on one side of the obelisk, to balance the fountain designed by Carlo Maderno in 1613 on the other.

Unfortunately, we have been unable to discover any biographical information about the artist, other than we presume he is Italian and painted in the 19th Century. In recent years we have only discovered one work by him to appear on the market and that was also a view in Rome. A watercolour of part of the Roman Forum was sold by Sothebys in 2009 for £1,750 inclusive of premium. It measured 18 1/2" x 13 1/2".

The painting has been newly double mounted in two-tone acid free mountboard and is newly framed in a 1 1/2" dull silver frame which suits it very well.

Image size: 21 1/2" x 8 1/8" - 54.6cm x 20.65cm

Frame size: 30 1/2" x 17" - 77.5cm x 43.2cm

Medium: Watercolours

Condition: Very good. The mounts and frame are new.