A View in San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, Rome
c. 1820
Gustav Friedrich Hetsch German, 1788-1864
Germany
Hetsch was an influential Danish-German architect and teacher, known for the meticulous technique and
the Romantic classicism of his drawings. In 1812 he went to Rome and in 1815 to Copenhagen. This sheet is interesting for its coded commentary: the processing clerics and the women kneeling in prayer before a reliquary altar model religious devotion, but the presence of two beggars on the steps of the church poignantly underscores more earthly concerns.
Pen and brown ink and brush and various brown washes on ivory wove paper, edge-mounted to an ivory laid paper inlay