On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P01211
- Author
- Velázquez, Diego Rodríguez de Silva y (Spanish)
- Title
- The Medici Gardens in Rome
- Chronology
- Ca. 1630
- Technique
- Support
- Measures
- 44 cm x 38 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: midday.
In a corner of the Villa Medici
gardens, two men converse in the
foreground, while a third looks out
at the landscape through a an open
serliana over which a sculpture of
sleeping Ariadne presides.
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
