The Aviaries of the Farnese Gardens on the Palatine, Rome

This drawing had been in the possession of Richard Wilson’s pupil Adolf Friedrich Harper and shows the two aviaries at the top level of the terraced gardens of the Farnese villa on the Palatine Hill, the earliest-known drawing of this view. This is the site where in 1752 Wilson first drew the Ionic capitals that were sketched by Johan Mandelberg and Johannes Wiedewelt, ca. 1755–56, and subsequently engraved by Piranesi. The drawing is in black chalk with white heightening on paper washed with a yellowish tint, familiar from other Wilson drawings of the early 1750s.