Attributed to Jan van Goyen, 'A View of a Castle and a River'

Attributed to Jan van Goyen, 'A View of a Castle and a River', about 1624-56. Museum no. CAI 355

Attributed to Jan van Goyen 1596-1656
'A View of a Castle and a River'
About 1624-56
Pen and ink and wash
Museum no. CAI 355
Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides

Jan van Goyen was a leading Dutch landscape painter. He was also an accomplished draughtsman, who travelled widely around the Netherlands recording features of the landscape. His finished works often combine topographically diverse elements from his sketchbooks to form imaginative compositions such as this.

Gomar Wouters, 'A View of the Piazza del Popolo

Gomar Wouters, 'A View of the Piazza del Popolo, Rome', About 1692. Museum no. CAI 362.

Gomar Wouters (1649 or 1658 - after 1696)
'A View of the Piazza del Popolo, Rome'
About 1692
Pen and ink and wash
Museum no. CAI 362
Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides

Many of the best topographical artists active in Rome in the 17th century were Netherlandish. This kind of highly detailed view painting was popularised by a Dutchman called Gaspar van Wittel, or 'Vanvitelli'. His enigmatic associate, Gomar Wouters, engraved several of Vanvitelli's works but also made this meticulous study for his own independent large print of the Piazza del Popolo.

Isaac de Moucheron, 'A Formal Garden'

Isaac de Moucheron, 'A Formal Garden', about 1700-1744. Museum no. CAI 368

Isaac de Moucheron (1667-1744)
'A Formal Garden'

About 1700-1744
Pen and ink and wash
Museum no. CAI 368
Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides

This drawing has recently been attributed to the Dutch artist Isaac de Moucheron, although when Ionides bought it, he believed - somewhat optimistically - that it was by Canaletto. Moucheron was best known in early 18th-century Amsterdam for his painted wall decorations. This may be either a study for a painting or a view of an actual garden.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 'A Design for a Fountain'

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 'A Design for a Fountain', About 1652-1653. Museum no. CAI 416

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680)
'A Design for a Fountain'
About 1652-1653
Pen and ink and wash
Museum no. CAI 416
Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides

Bernini was the central figure of the Italian Baroque. This drawing appears to be a design for the fountain of Neptune for the ducal palace at Sassuolo, near Modena. The figure of Neptune, holding a dolphin, balances on an arched rock. The fountain is still in situ, framed in a niche as shown in the drawing.

Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto 'An Imaginary Composition: A Ruined Tower and Watermill beside a Stream'

Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto 'An Imaginary Composition: A Ruined Tower and Watermill beside a Stream', about 1755–1768. Museum no. CAI 421 Museum no. CAI 421

Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto  (1697-1768)
'An Imaginary Composition: A Ruined Tower and Watermill beside a Stream'
About 1755-1768
Pen and ink and wash
Museum no. CAI 421
Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides

Canaletto made many fanciful views of tumbledown buildings, normally set in villages or the countryside, known as vedute ideate. Unlike his capricci, which usually took existing buildings and placed them in new and sometimes absurd settings, with vedute ideate Canaletto generally invented most parts of the composition. Here a ruinous tower and watermill provide a scene of picturesque dilapidation.

Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto 1697–1768 An Imaginary Composition: A Village Street

Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto 1697–1768 An Imaginary Composition: A Village Street, Spanned by a Ruined Arch, Leading past a Church, about 1755–68. Museum no. CAI 423

Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto (1697-1768 )
'An Imaginary Composition: A Village Street, Spanned by a Ruined Arch, Leading past a Church'
About 1755-1768
Pen and ink and wash
Museum no. CAI 423
Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides

The pair of Canaletto drawings are among the finest works in Ionides' collection. When he bought them, however, they were described as 'anonymous: Venetian'. Only later did scholars at the V&A realise they were by Canaletto.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 'A View of the Piazza Navona on the Ruins of the Circus Agonalis

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 'A View of the Piazza Navona on the Ruins of the Circus Agonalis, Rome', 1751. Museum no. CAI 916

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-78)
'A View of the Piazza Navona on the Ruins of the Circus Agonalis, Rome'
1751
Etching (Piranesi List 29; Focillon 733; Hind 108, state I)
Museum no. CAI 916
Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides

Ionides possessed many superb prints from Piranesi's famous series Vedute di Roma. These early impressions, printed in Piranesi's lifetime, on heavy Italian paper and before the plates became worn, are particularly prized for their rich, black, deeply etched line. The view of Piazza Navona shows the church of Sant'Agnese to the left and Bernini's fountain of the Four Rivers in the centre.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 'A View of Santa Maria di Loreto and Il Nome di Maria

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 'A View of Santa Maria di Loreto and Il Nome di Maria, close to Trajan's Column, Rome', 1762. Museum no. CAI 920

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-78)
'A View of Santa Maria di Loreto and Il Nome di Maria, close to Trajan's Column, Rome'
1762
Etching (Piranesi List 30; Focillon 849; Hind 66, State II)
Museum no. CAI 920
Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides

Piranesi's images of 'modern' Rome powerfully suggest the scale and grandeur of the churches, palaces and public buildings erected in the Renaissance and Baroque eras. But many of the views also include scenes of the picturesque, bustling life of the city, details that had a souvenir appeal for visitors making the Grand Tour.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi , 'A View of the Upper Parts of the Ruins of the Baths of Diocletian'1774. Museum no. CAI 939

Giovanni Battista Piranesi , 'A View of the Upper Parts of the Ruins of the Baths of Diocletian' 1774. Museum no. CAI 939

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-78)
'A View of the Upper Parts of the Ruins of the Baths of Diocletian'
1774
Etching (Piranesi List 105; Focillon 833; Hind 115, State I)
From Vedute di Roma, 1748-1778, Vol. II
Museum no. CAI 939
Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides

This view shows the well-preserved remains of the south wall of the interior of the frigidarium (cold room) of Diocletian's baths. Piranesi emphasises the dramatic scale of the structure, the largest of the imperial baths. Completed in 306 AD, the baths remained in use for over two hundred years, until the Goths severed the aqueducts that supplied the city in 537.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 'A View of the Remains of the Second Storey of the Baths of Titus'

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 'A View of the Remains of the Second Storey of the Baths of Titus', 1776. Museum no. CAI 940.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-78)
'A View of the Remains of the Second Storey of the Baths of Titus'
1776
Etching (Piranesi List 109; Focillon 838; Hind 127, State I)
From Vedute di Roma, 1748-1778, Vol. II
Museum no. CAI 940
Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides

Piranesi, more than any other artist, created a romanticised image in the European mind of the ruins of ancient Rome as the remains of grandeur on a heroic scale. Archaeologists have subsequently identified this structure as being a part not of Titus's baths, but rather of those erected by the Emperor Trajan.