Italian Landscape with a City on a Hill

Caspar van Wittel (Amersfoort, ca. 1653 – Rome, 1736)

He was probably born in Utrecht or Amersfoort to Adriaen Jaspersz Van Wietel (?-?), who was a cartwright, and Mayken Cornelisdr Copiers (?-?).¹ His initial training was with portrait painter Thomas van Veenendaell (c. 1628-after 1673). He joined the workshop of Matthias Withoos (1627-1703) a few years later.² At the end of 1674 Van Wittel moved to Rome, where he was recorded at the local guild of Netherlandish artists, the Schildersbent, on 3 January 1675. His bent-name was ‘Piktoorts’ (Pitch-torch), but his more commonly used Italian name was ‘Vanvitelli’ or ‘Gasparo dagli Occhiali’, a reference to the spectacles that he had to wear due to his cataracts.³ In his initial years in Rome, he worked as the assistant of hydraulic engineer Cornelis Meyer (1629-1701), illustrating Meyer’s plans to restore navigability to the River Tiber between Rome and Perugia. They also produced several printed views of Rome and its environs.⁴ Van Wittel spent the remainder of his life in Rome, but made several trips throughout Italy and a short trip to the Netherlands in 1685.⁵ The majority of his drawn and painted oeuvre depicts Rome and the surrounding campagna.

Van Wittel is considered to be one of the principal painters of topographical views in Italy known as vedute: realistic (panoramic) landscape or town views that are largely topographical in conception. He was renowned for his careful and detailed observations of the individual elements that appear in such works, be they natural or architectural details. He probably made use of a camera obscura to help with perspective. Inspired by his Dutch predecessors, he employed bright colours, for instance to render clear blue skies, and avoided heavy shadows, a novelty in Italy. Several of his paintings are drenched in late-afternoon sunlight reflected from the white façades of local Roman villas and palaces. This technique was certainly inspired by Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), another foreigner active in Italy.⁶ While many of Van Wittel’s predecessors were attracted by the Classical architectural ruins found in and around Rome, Van Wittel documented the modern city in its present-day form and rarely depicted its ancient monuments and religious sites.⁷

Drawings were a crucial part of Van Wittel’s working method, and he often used a single drawing for several painted compositions. Many of his drawings were apparently part of sketchbooks with which he usually travelled, which were later taken apart. His in situ sketches are in black or red chalk and were later finished in his studio with ink and washes. Several of his larger sheets include (colour) notations and were squared for transfer. A large group of these preparatory sheets is now in the collection of the Biblioteca Vittorio Emanuele in Rome.⁸ He also drew imaginary views partly based on actual sites, which are almost exclusively finished works in pen and wash. Several are signed. They were likely made for specific clients; at the height of his career, Van Wittel was unable to meet the large demand for his paintings and instead sold drawings to his clientele.⁹

On 18 February 1697, Van Wittel married Anne Lorenzani (1669-1736). The couple had six children, three of whom reached adulthood: Luigi Vanvitelli (1700-1773), who became a famous architect and sculptor, Urbano Vanvitelli (1702-1770) and Petronilla Vanvitelli (1710-1766). Caspar van Wittel passed away on 13 September 1736; his wife followed in December of the same year. They were buried in Santa Maria in Vallicelli, Rome.¹⁰

Carolyn Mensing, 2021

References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, II (1719), p. 360, III (1721), p. 103; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, II (1910), p. 897; C. Lorenzetti, Gaspare Vanvitelli, Milan 1934; G. Briganti, ‘Gaspar van Wittel (Vanvitelli), schilder van Amersfoort’, Mededeelingen van het Nederlandsch Historisch Instituut te Rome 22 (1943), pp. 119-33; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXXVI (1947), pp. 130-31; G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel e l’origine della veduta settecentesca, Rome 1966; A. Zwollo, Hollandse en Vlaamse veduteschilders te Rome, 1675-1725, Assen 1973; M.W. Heijenga-Klomp, ‘Jacob van Staverden en Caspar van Wittel. Twee schilders van Amersfoort te Rome’, Flehite 21 (1991) nos. 3-4, pp. 34-42; M.W. Heijenga-Klomp, ‘Caspar van Wittel. Zijn ouders en jeugdjaren’, Flehite 21 (1991), nos. 3-4, pp. 42-49; G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel, Milan 1996; L. Trezzani, ‘Caspar van Wittel’, in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols., London/New York 1996, vol. XXXIII, pp. 268-70; M.W. Heijenga-Klomp, ‘Jasper van Wittel (ca. 1652-1736). Een Amersfoortse schilder in Italië’, Flehite, Historisch Jaarboek voor Amersfoort en omstreken (2005), pp. 132-47; R. Landsman, ‘Caspar van Wittel’s Family Ties’, Oud Holland 131 (2018), nos. 3-4, pp. 139-50