Rome with the Dome of Saint Peter's, Engraving Published by Thomas Kelly, 1816

An original engraving of Rome seen from the countryside, lettered "Rome" with the imprint "London, Pub.d by Thomas Kelly, Paternoster Row, Nov.r 30, 1816".

The view looks across the Campagna from a wooded rise. At the left a large tree with spreading branches frames the scene, and beneath it a small party of travelers rests on the path: a woman with a staff, a man with a gun over his shoulder, a woman and a child, and a small dog. Beyond lie fields divided by hedges and tree lined roads, with scattered farmhouses and cypresses, and on the horizon the city stretches in a long line of roofs, towers and domes, dominated at the right by Michelangelo's dome of Saint Peter's. Flights of birds cross a wide sky of drifting clouds.

For British readers in the years after the Napoleonic Wars, when travel to Italy resumed, such views conveyed the extent and grandeur of the Eternal City. Thomas Kelly was a leading London publisher of popular illustrated part works, and many of his plates of European cities were issued in geographies and gazetteers. The book in which this plate appeared has not been identified, and the engraver is not named.

The engraving is clear and finely detailed, with crisp foliage in the foreground and a soft, silvery treatment of the distant city and sky, and the sheet keeps wide margins around the plate.

This is an attractive early nineteenth century view of Rome, ideal for collectors of Grand Tour prints and Italian views, and it would frame well for a study, a dining room or a hallway.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.