The Piazza del Popolo in Rome
  • Vincenzo Marchi
  • Rome 1818 - 1894
  • The Piazza del Popolo in Rome
  • Watercolour on paper
  • signed on the lower right: Marchi
  • 154 × 212 mm

Throughout his life, Vincenzo Marchi specialised in Italian city views, particularly of Rome and its landmarks. This watercolour depicts a glimpse from the Via di Ripetta of the Egyptian obelisk that Pope Sixtus V transposed here from the Circus Maximus before 1590. Behind gleams the church of Sta. Maria del Popolo with Bernini’s façade for the Porta del Popolo to its left.

A column from the frontal structure of Sta. Maria dei Miracoli dominates the far right of the image. In the background, one recognises the staircase leading to the Pincio, built by Giuseppe Valadier in the early nineteenth century.