Santo Stefano Rotondo and the Claudian Aqueduct

Although Wilson’s composition is broadly Claudean in conception, with the framing pine tree to the left, the view is based on personal observation. The artist’s vantage point is the edge of the garden of the Villa Mattei beside the sunken lane that ran immediately beyond the pine tree. The garden contained an important collection of classical statuary including, on a plinth to the right, a version of the Antinous. Slightly to the left of the statue, in the middle distance, is the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterno with the Lateran obelisk—the tallest in Rome—in the adjacent piazza. In the left foreground, framed by trees, is the church of S. Stefano Rotondo, and to its right, a section of the Claudian aqueduct. The inscription on the mount, identifying the view, is in the handwriting of Thomas Jenkins.