Cockerell (Charles Robert) After.

this engraving by Giacomo Rocrué, with an extensive key below the title, was the first to be published of this famous, intelligently imagined, reconstruction of the ancient Roman forum by the English architect and archaeologist, Charles Robert Cockerell (1788-1863). It is thought his wealthy patron, Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire, commissioned him to produce views, contemporary and reconstructed, of the classical ruins in Rome as he had previously on his sojourn in Athens during his first, extensive, grand tour. This he did following his second trip to Rome at the end of 1816, when he stayed until the Spring of 1817, producing views from different angles, including the original of this one which was later exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1819, to popular acclaim, under the title ‘An Idea of a Reconstruction of the Capital and Forum of Rome’. It was subsequently engraved in Rome by Giuseppe Acquaroni and Pietro Parboni, in 1820, in London by John Coney in 1824, and later still in Paris by Alexandre Charles Dormier, in 1842,

engraving, 275 x 340 mm. (10 7/8 x 13 3/8 in), slight surface dirt and some minor handling creases, mostly marginal,