Uffizi acquires a drawing by Gaspar van Wittel

The Uffizi Gallery acquires a drawing by Gaspar van Wittel (Amersfoort, 1653 - Rome, 1736). It is a large drawing that art historian Giuliano Briganti at the time recognized as preparatory for the View of the Convent of San Paolo in Albano painted by van Wittel in 1710. Now preserved in Florence, at the Galleria Palatina in Palazzo Pitti, the oil painting is very well documented since its commission to the Dutch artist by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, nephew of Alexander VIII and trustee of the Abbey of San Paolo in Albano since 1685. The work had been commissioned from van Wittel to commemorate the reception offered by Cardinal Ottoboni to Clement XI Albani in the summer of 1710, during the pontiff’s vacation period at Castelgandolfo (the pope is in fact depicted there looking out from the balcony of the convent, on the far right of the painting).

Gaspar van Wittel’s work is characterized by the prior elaboration of drawings that capture the entirety of the view to be made, without perspective forcing but with a breadth of shot that not infrequently involved the use of several sheets, in this case two, to ensure the necessary panoramic qualities. Most likely executed on the spot, perhaps even with the help of optical instruments, the drawing precisely studies the general layout of the scene, the incidence of shadows and the entire light scan. Conversely, the details and figures, which populate the square and are glimpsed in the interior through the windows, were added later on the canvas, in the studio. Rather concise in the definition of the foreground spaces and the garden, the depiction is instead very detailed in the description of the abbey complex and in the masterful definition, by means of quick spreads of diluted ink, of the lights and shadows, in all corresponding to those of the final painted version, which has almost the same dimensions as the preparatory study.

On the verso of the sheet, in addition to a fantasy landscape, we see the three-arched portico of access to the church, studied in detail and with a firmer hand. The higher viewpoint is intended to give greater emphasis to the framing and confirms van Wittel’s ability to layout broad views, with effects of almost chronicle-like verisimilitude, as was well suited to this specific occasion.

The director of the Uffizi, Eike D. Schmidt, states that "the preparatory drawing is thus autograph and datable with certainty and provides a highly relevant example of the drawing production of Gaspar van Wittel, the Dutch painter who is credited with the fundamental role of uniting the Nordic and Italian landscape traditions. His production in fact inaugurates a new, extraordinary season of European Vedutism with a specific genre interested in the objective rendering of the urban aspect, captured in its contemporary, everyday context and stripped of any scenic component."

Pictured: Gaspar van Wittel, View of the Convent of San Paolo in Albano (1710; pen and brown ink on pencil trace, diluted ink, 405 x 860 mm; Florence, Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe degli Uffizi)

Uffizi acquires a drawing by Gaspar van Wittel

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