On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P01210
- Author
- Velázquez, Diego Rodríguez de Silva y (Spanish)
- Title
- The Medici Gardens in Rome
- Chronology
- Ca. 1630
- Technique
- Support
- Measures
- 48,5 cm x 43 cm
- School
- Theme
- Shown
- Yes
- Entrance
- COLECCION REAL
- Procedence
- Royal collection
In this masterpiece of Western
landscape painting, Velasquez
depicted his idea of landscape
without any narrative excuse to
justify it.
It was probably painted during his
first visit to Rome and is now
thought to have been painted to
capture a specific moment and
atmospheric circumstance: the
evening. In a corner of the Villa
Medici gardens, two men converse in
front of a serliana —an
architectural structure made known
by Sebastiano Serlio that consists
of a round arch flanked by two flat
doorways— closed off by wooden
boards. Alongside it is a herma (a
bust of the classical god, Hermes,
which marked crossroads in
Antiquity). Above the construction,
someone hangs a sheet and, in a
niche at the right of the
composition, the profiles of some
of the sculptures that make up the
villa's magnificent art collection
are visible.
While very little is know of this
work, its beauty and quality place
it among the great masterworks at
the Prado Museum and one of the few
pre-nineteenth century examples of
landscape painted directly from
nature.
Location on the map
