View of the Colosseum from the Orti Farnesiani 1833

Antoine-Félix Boisselier painted this View of the Colosseum from the Orti Farnesiani in oil on canvas. The romantic style of the image presents us with a magnificent ruin, viewed from the overgrown gardens on Palatine Hill. Painted in the first half of the 19th century, the image conjures a long history of European painters who travelled to Italy to see its famous ancient monuments. Boisselier presents the Colosseum as picturesque and sublime, but also empty of any social life. He chooses a viewpoint that is itself a relic of an aristocratic family, the Farnese. In its heyday, this garden was filled with classical sculpture, asserting the prestige of the family as patrons and collectors. Now, only a lone monk is present in the foreground. By choosing this vista, Boisselier connects the ancient Roman Empire, the aristocratic families of the Renaissance, and the contemporary tourist trade. We can use tourist guides, hotel lists and ship passenger records to further understand who was seeing these images, and what they meant to different social classes.