Landschap nabij de Villa Madama 1725

Paolo Anesi made this print called “Landschap nabij de Villa Madama,” or Landscape near the Villa Madama, in eighteenth-century Italy. We see a dirt road, trees, figures walking, and in the background, a villa. This print would have appealed to wealthy tourists traveling through Italy as part of what was called the Grand Tour, and the print is part of a tradition of landscape views called “vedute.” These vedute served as both souvenirs and as a kind of advertisement for the beauty of Italy, and they helped fuel the growing tourism industry. Anesi’s print flattens the landscape and gives it a picturesque quality. The figures are small in relation to the trees and the landscape, and the villa itself seems secondary. This print encourages us to consider the role of art as tied to tourism and commerce. We can understand Anesi's work better through research into the Grand Tour and the art market in eighteenth-century Italy.