Tag: Wordless Wednesday

Wordless(ish) Wednesday: Villa Malta, Rome, in Paintings

Some pictures of pictures I took last summer at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich: paintings of the Villa Malta in Rome. The first is a set of four by Johann Christian Reinhart (1761 – 1847), showing the view from the villa to the East, South, West and North. They’re hung in a small room in the museum around the four walls, so you can pretend it’s 1831 and you’re standing on the parapet of the Villa, looking out over the city.

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And this is what the villa looked like from the city, painted by Domenico Quaglio in 1830. You see those little guys in the middleground, slightly to the left? At the bottom you can see just how tiny they are in the painting, with my thumb next to them to show the scale. Quaglio must have painted them with a single paintbrush hair.

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That’s more words than normal for Wednesdays, but this little time travel excursion to 19th-century Rome needed a bit of explanation.

So that was Life, the Universe, and the Villa Malta in Rome in 1830. Apologies for all the words.