Piazza del Popolo, Rome

Jacopo Fabris (1689-1761). Oil painting on canvas, Piazza del Popolo, Rome by Jacopo Fabris (1689-1761). The Piazza del Popolo held a particular significance for most visitors to Rome as their first experience of the city, situated directly inside the Porta del Popolo, at the end of the Via Flaminia, the main route to the city from the north. According to Charles Beddington ('Bernardo Bellotto and his circle in Italy and a masterpiece by Francesco Guardi', exh cat. Charles Beddington Ltd., 2014, cat. 1 [unpaginated]), "No depiction by Canaletto of the square is known; the surviving drawings from his only visit to Rome in 1719-20, five of which were used by Bellotto for paintings, are mostly of the ancient rather than the modern city. It is possible, however, that one existed, as one or more of the early variants of the composition may be attributable to Canaletto's father (and Bellotto's grandfather) Bernado Canal (1664-1744), who often borrowed his son's compositions; others are by Jacopo Fabris (1689-1761), who left Italy for Northern Europe definitively in 1741." Beddington identifies the present picture as by Fabris in note 7. Saltram, Devon (Accredited Museum)