The Tomb of Caecilia Metella near Rome
  • Tommaso Bigatti
  • Italy, early nineteenth century
  • The Tomb of Caecilia Metella near Rome
  • Gouache over pencil, heightened with gum arabic, on swanskin
  • 131 × 213 mm

This and the two following works are typical examples of an artist just as mysterious as he was brilliant, who primarily created mementos for Italian travellers in the early 19th century. With a truly extraordinary imagination, he devised evernew decorations in the Neo-Pompeian style around familiar pictorial motives in the center. The invariably reserved colouration of these borders supports, moreover, the luminosity of the central images.

The mausoleum of Cecilia Metella is reminiscent of a Roman noblewoman from the last century BCE. Today, it is one of the greatest and best-preserved tombs on the Via Appia Antica.