Castel Sant'Angelo and Tiber
The round bulk of the Castel Sant'Angelo above the Tiber in Rome, painted on the spot by the young Corot.
Castel Sant'Angelo
The painting shows a real, identified place that you can find today. The exact spot the artist worked from is not necessarily known.
Castel Sant'Angelo and Tiber — at a glance
- Artist
- Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796–1875)
- Year
- c. 1826–1827
- Movement
- Plein-air landscape study
- Place
- The Castel Sant'Angelo and the Tiber, Rome, Italy
- Viewpoint
- The Tiber embankment by the castle — castle, bridge and river unchanged; banks walled up after 1870s floods
- Medium
- Oil on paper / canvas
- Now at
- Musée du Louvre, Paris, and other collections
Overview
During his first stay in Italy (1825–28), the young Camille Corot painted a series of small oil studies of Rome on the spot, among them several of the Castel Sant'Angelo seen across or along the Tiber. They show the massive cylindrical fortress with its later ramparts and the bronze angel on top, the river below, the arches of a bridge, and the warm Roman light on stone. They are oil on paper or canvas, small in scale; examples are in the Musée du Louvre and other collections.
Where was Castel Sant'Angelo and Tiber painted?
Scholarship The Castel Sant'Angelo began as the mausoleum of the emperor Hadrian (completed AD 139), was turned into a fortress and papal stronghold, and is linked to St Peter's by a raised passage. It stands on the right bank of the Tiber, entered by the statue-lined Ponte Sant'Angelo. The castle, the bridge and the river are all unchanged and the building is a museum; Corot's viewpoints along the embankment can be broadly matched, though the Tiber's banks were walled and raised after major floods in the 1870s–80s.
How we know
- A veduta of the real Castel Sant'Angelo; the 'Tiber' target is an arbitrary point on the whole river.
What is in the painting?
The drum of the castle dominates, its brick-and-stone mass warmed by sun, the angular Renaissance bastions at its base, the small upper storeys and the angel on the summit. The Tiber runs in the foreground, muddy green, with a boat or two; an arch of a bridge, riverside buildings and a slice of pale sky complete the view. The handling is broad, direct and light-filled.
Look closely
The bronze angel
The statue of the Archangel Michael on the summit — the ‘angel’ that names the castle.
The Renaissance bastions
Angular star-fort bastions added round the base of Hadrian's round drum.
The Tiber
The muddy green river runs across the foreground, with a boat or two.
The broad light
The stone is simplified into a few big sunlit and shadowed planes — a quick outdoor study.
Analysis
Composition and technique
The heavy cylindrical castle set against sky and its own reflection, the river leading the eye to it.
Scholarship Corot simplifies the fortress into a few big planes of sunlit and shadowed stone, plants it firmly against the sky, and uses the line of the river and a bridge arch to lead in. These small studies, painted quickly outdoors, were the private laboratory for his more finished landscapes.
History & provenance
Corot's Roman oil studies were kept in his studio and dispersed after his death; examples are in the Musée du Louvre, the Musée Marmottan and other collections.
Sources
- Musée du Louvre, Paris — Corot's Roman oil studies (1826–28)
- Gary Tinterow et al., ‘Corot’ (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996)
Related paintings
More by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot
The Bridge at Narni
The road from Sèvres to Paris
Recollection of Mortefontaine
