View of the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine from the Palatine  1824

This work straddles the boundary between a sketch and a finished painting. Key monuments are shown as fragments of a compositional whole that is equal parts natural and urban, ancient and modern. In the foreground, the broken contours of a grassy row of arches playfully anticipate the forms of the architecture beyond. This Picturesque device contrasts with the purely funct...