Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011481About the Artwork
Flemish artist Lieven Cruyl made a number of drawings of emblematic vistas of Rome for the Roman publisher Giovanni Battista de Rossi, of which ten were published as etchings in 1666. The Campidoglio features architecture designed by Michelangelo. The Campidoglio was an important ritual space atop the Capitoline Hill overlooking the Roman Forum. Michelangelo reoriented the piazza to look away from the forum and toward Saint Peter’s Basilica, creating a link between the civic buildings on the piazza and the home of the Catholic Church. He had the piazza paved in a trapezoidal shape and placed the ancient Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius on a newly designed plinth in the middle. With this design, he transformed the Campidoglio from a muddy hill to a central destination and ritual space for centuries to come.
Inscriptions
signed, lower right, in brown ink: [artist's monogram: LC] RVYL del: Romæ mense Januarij / 1665. ; by artist, upper center, in brown ink: Prospetto del Campidoglio ; by artist, throughout composition, in brown ink: [the letters A-E] ; by artist, lower left, in brown ink: A. Capitolium Romanum. B. Turris eidem superstructa. C. Due Porticus, quarum Una ab Innocentio / X. inchoatæ, ab Alexandro VII perfectæ et completæ. D. Ecclia Minoritarum / Ara Coeli Vocata. ; VERSO, upper left, in brown ink: S45.[partially masked] ; upper left in graphite: n. 545 ; ON STRIPS OF PAPER MOUNTED TO VERSO, lower center, in graphite: A20970 ; lower right, in graphite: E. 10
Exhibition history
Views of Rome. American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy (organizer) (October 13-November 20, 1989). Master/Apprentice: Imitation and Inspiration in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 13, 2019-February 23, 2020).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Lievin Cruyl (Flemish, c. 1640-c. 1720)
- Date
- 1665
- Medium
- pen and brown ink and brush and gray wash over graphite; framing lines in brown ink
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 38.6 x 49.5 cm (15 3/16 x 19 1/2 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Dudley P. Allen Fund
- Accession no.
- 1943.264
More by Lievin Cruyl in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00011481
Powered by Art Trackers