Hendrick Frans van Lint, foremost among the vedutisti of the first half of the eighteenth century in Rome, followed a well-trodden path to success. Born in Antwerp, where he trained for a short time under Pieter van Bredael, he made his first trip to Rome in 1700 when he was just sixteen years old, before returning in 1710 to settle permanently in the city where he would make his career. Van Lint’s friends and collaborators included Gaspar van Wittel, called Vanvitelli (1652/53–1736) and Jan Frans van Bloemen (1662–1749), aas well as members of the group of Dutch and Flemish artists living in Rome at the time who called themselves the Bentvueghels, meaning birds of a feather. These famously rowdy painters, sculptors, goldsmiths and engravers were best known for their bacchic revelries and penchant for assuming nicknames based on their artistic style. Van Lint, who prepared his compositions with extraordinary care, became known in this circle as “Monsù Studio.” The Bentvueghels’ society flourished into the early years of the seventeenth century under Pope Clemente XI Albani, who ascended to the throne of St. Peters in 1700. Albani was a great patron, whose reign was characterized by exceptional achievements in literature and the arts. As Christopher M.S. Johns puts it, Albani was committed to the “urbanistic notion that the ancient monuments of Rome should be effectively and imaginatively woven into the modern fabric of the city,” which was surely due, in some part, to “a new evaluation of the role of Rome in its own world opinion.” (Christopher M.S. Johns, Papal Art and Cultural Politics: Rome in the Age of Clemente XI, Cambridge, 1993, p. 21). Van Lint’s views of Rome were much admired. He painted ancient monuments, countryside vistas, and river views across the city, but it was his scenes along the Tiber, such as this work, that allowed for a greater opportunity to explore narrative details, together with the different effects of light and colour. In this atmospheric view of the river Tiber at the Ponte Sant’Angelo, we see two of the most famous and remarkable structures of the Eternal City, the Castel Sant’Angelo dominating the right half of the composition and Saint Peter’s Basilica visible on the horizon at the far left. A few figures go about their day, steering boats along the gently flowing river spanned by the famous bridge, decorated with Bernini’s marble statues of angels. Dappled by the warm glow of Roman sunshine, the painting would have appealed as much to eighteenth-century grand tourists as it does to a contemporary viewer. Although Van Lint often used the viewpoints as Vanvitelli, the view of the Castel Sant’ Angelo seen from this angle across the river Tiber appears to be Van Lint’s own invention. The artwork described above is subject to changes in availability and price without prior notice.