Turpin de Crissé first visited Italy in 1807–08 under the sponsorship of Marie-Gabriel-Auguste-Florent de Choiseul Gouffier, the diplomat and archaeologist for whom he painted this view of the ancient Roman Forum. At right, the columns of the 6th-century Temple of Antoninus and Faustina enclose a more modern building, the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda, whose 17th-century façade Turpin carefully avoided. In the left background rise the three remaining columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux—another ruined monument to Rome’s past—while in the foreground a picturesque cluster of Italian peasants reminded 19th-century viewers of the city’s more rustic present.

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