Rijksmuseum

Object data

point of brush and grey ink, with grey wash, over traces of black chalk; framing lines in black chalk and dark brown ink

height 156 mm × width 241 mm

Inscriptions

signed and dated: lower right, in grey ink, WROMEIJN (W and R in ligation) 1666
inscribed on verso: lower left, in pencil or graphite (faded), N°32 / 9- ; next to that, in an eighteenth- or early nineteenth-century hand, in pencil (partially legible), N 4465 / […]

Technical notes

watermark: none

Provenance

…; sale, Stephen Hendrik de la Sablonnière (1825-88, Kampen) and Dr Cornelius Ekama (1824-91, Haarlem), Amsterdam (F. Muller), 30 June 1891, no. 191, fl. 2;¹; ...; sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 19 January 1904, no. ??; purchased from the dealer J.H. Odink, 1905

Object number: RP-T-1905-207

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

Entry

Because the western part of the Forum Romanum was used to graze cattle since the Middle Ages, it was known as the Campo Vaccino (‘cow pasture’). With the Capitoline Hill in the background, Romeyn looked east over the forum towards the church of S. Francesca Romana and the Arch of Titus, with the silhouette of the Colosseum visible in the left distance. To the left, the site is framed by the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, joined by the round Temple of Romulus, which partly covers the portico of SS. Cosma e Damiano; behind, the ruins of the Basilica of Constantine are visible. To the right, the Casino Farnese on the Palatine is represented, and, serving as an impressive repoussoir, the columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux. A donkey and two oxen rest in its shade, apparently pausing from carrying a now abandoned cart and being watched by a herdsman in a cloak.

Although the date has been interpreted as either ‘1664’² or ‘1660’,³ it should be read as ‘1666’, since the last digit’s ascender is similar to those of the two previous digits. Moreover, the drawing corresponds in style with another sheet in the collection dated 1666 (inv. no. RP-T-1902-A-4555). Both drawings must have been based on lost studies that the artist made during his sojourn in Rome (1650-51). Over the years, Romeyn recycled the material he had assembled in Italy, meeting collectors’ demands for autonomous drawings of Italianate themes. The same subject is represented in an even later drawing by the artist, dated 1693, preserved in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (inv. no. KKSgb15805),⁴ filled with more herdsmen and cattle, evoking the cattle markets held there on Tuesdays and Fridays. Equally crowded is an untraced signed, but undated painting, in which Romeyn rendered the scene from a closer viewpoint, with the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina and the rear part of the Temple of Romulus missing.⁵

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

Literature

De bouwvallen in en om Rome door Nederlandsche kunstenaars afgebeeld, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1908, no. 140; I.Q. van Regteren Altena, Vereeuwigde Stad. Rome door Nederlanders getekend, 1500-1900, Amsterdam 1964, no. 57 (as dated 1664); L.C.J. Frerichs, Berchem en de Bentgenoten in Italië, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1970, no. 88; C. Boschma (ed.), Meesterlijk Vee. Nederlandse veeschilders, 1600-1900, exh. cat. Dordrecht (Dordrechts Museum)/Leeuwarden (Fries Museum) 1988-89, p. 201; P. Schatborn, with J. Verberne, Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch Artists in Italy, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001, p. 148, fig. B (as dated 1660)

Citation

A. Stefes, 2018, 'Willem Romeyn, View of the Campo Vaccino in Rome, Haarlem, 1666', in J. Turner (ed.), (under construction) Drawings 2, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200143717

(accessed 14 December 2025 00:11:13).